The Characteristics of Sensory Stimulating Food

Many foods we consume today have a hyper palatable effect on our sensory stimulation, which also has a direct effect on our food choices. The food manufactures and eating establishment owners are aware that our sensory stimulation is provoked by heavy amounts of sugar, salt, and fat in our foods.

An example of this is a thick piece of meat that is layered with bacon, cheese and mayonnaise on top of a buttered bun which is made with flour, water, and salt, but also includes ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, canola oil and in some cases partially hydrogenated oil. As you can see these are multiple layers fat on fat on salt on fat on sugar. The point is sugar, salt and fat in multiple combinations and unlimited amounts sales.

One may ask the question are we eating for health or trying to satisfy our sensory stimulations. When we eat fat it stimulates our sensory impulses making our food feel thicker and richer giving us a sense of fullness in the mouth. When the right amount of salt is added to our food the saltiness many prefer also brings out the flavor in our food and different types of sugar add sweetness, soothing and smoothing our food sensations.

Food sensory stimulation is enhanced with multiple characteristics and each of them has an impact on the pleasure we derive from the food we consume either knowingly or unknowingly. Some of these characteristics are adhesiveness, aroma, compression, creaminess, crumbliness, firmness, flavor, manual texture, melt, moisture absorption, mouth coating, oral texture, particle size, and visual texture.

The sensory stimulation process starts when we first think about certain foods, secondly we see or visualize the food and its texture, thirdly we smell the food, then we tastes the food and finally after chewing, releasing multiple flavors arousing our palate we swallow the food.