Dietary restraint and responsiveness to sensory-based food cues as measured by cephalic phase salivation and sensory specific satiety.

Responsiveness to sensory-based food cues was examined in restrained and unrestrained, normal-weight subjects identified with the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire. Salivary flow rate was measured with no food present and while subjects viewed hot pizza. In the presence of food, restrained eaters had a mean salivary flow rate (0.388 g/min) greater than twice that of the unrestrained eaters (0.186 g/min). During sensory specific satiety testing, subjects tasted and rated the pleasantness of 9 foods, then received a meal of either cheese and crackers or cookies. Changes in pleasantness for the tasted foods were evaluated at 2, 20, and 40 min following the meal. Both restrained and unrestrained subjects displayed similar patterns of sensory specific satiety, i.e., the pleasantness foods which were eaten decreased relative to foods tasted but not eaten. These patterns were unaffected by the type of food consumed in the test meal. These data demonstrate that restrained eaters show moderately enhanced salivary responses but no changes in sensory-specific satiety to food stimuli, suggesting that heightened responsiveness to the sensory properties of foods may not be a generalized phenomenon in restrained eaters.