The Role of the Nutritional and Sensorial Properties of Food in Appetite, Food Intake and Health

Dear Colleagues,

As a field, eating behaviour encompasses all the factors that determine food selection, motivation, preferences, and food intake in response to environmental or physiological stimuli. The regulation of food intake is the result of the interaction between homeostatic and hedonic processes. In this interaction, the homeostatic aims to control energy balance by motivating food intake when energy stores are low, while hedonic regulation is based on the concept of food reward, desire and pleasantness associated with the perception of foods as palatable.

The sensory modalities, taste, odour, texture, and trigeminal sensitivity, along with visual and sound capacities, play a major role in palatability, guiding food choices and ultimately energy intake. The excess or deficiency of energy intake causes measurable adverse effects on body form (composition), function and clinical outcome and encompasses both overnutrition and undernutrition as the two sides of the same coin. Thus, the importance of the role of appetite and food intake regulation has become increasingly evident.

Sensory properties and the nutritional composition of foods can be used to promote better food intake control by reducing appetite or increasing motivation to eat, depending on the needs of the population, and they consequently influence human physiology, metabolism, and health.

The Special Issue of Nutrients, entitled ‘The Role of the Nutritional and Sensorial Properties of Food in Appetite, Food Intake and Health’, welcomes the submission of manuscripts either describing original research or reviewing the current scientific literature.  This includes systematic reviews and meta-analyses. 

Dr. Anestis Dougkas
Guest Editor

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