In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.      Studies have shown. for instance. that eating in front of the TV (or a similar distraction) can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Even simple visual cues( ). like plate size and lighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.       A new study suggested that our shot-term memory also may play a role in appetite.  Several hours after a meal, people's hunger levels were predicted not by how much they'd eaten but rather by how much food they'd seen in front of them --- in other words, how much they remembered eating.       This difference suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetite than the actual size of the meal. says Jeffrey M . Brunstrom , a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol.     "Hunger isn't. controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an independent role for memory for that meal." Brunstrom says. "This shows that the relationship between hunger and food intake is more complex than we thought."      These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body's response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones, depending on whether the shake's label said it contained 620 0r 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they'd consumed a higher-calorie shake.      What does this means for our eating habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves in to eating less, the new findings do highlight the benefits of focusing on our food avoiding TV and multitasking while eating.      The so-called mindful-eating strategies can fight distractions and help us control our appetite, Brunstrom says. What do we learn from the 2011 study?
Food labels may mislead consumers in their purchases. Food labels may influence our body's response to food. Hunger levels depend on one's consumption of calories. People tend to take in a lot more calories than necessary.