Why Do Sandwiches Taste Better When Someone Else Makes Them?

[luXy]

When you make your own sandwich, you anticipate its taste as you’re working on it. And when you think of a particular food for a while, you become less hungry for it later.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, for example, found that imagining eating M&Ms makes you eat fewer of them. It’s a kind of specific satiation, just as most people find room for dessert when they couldn’t have another bite of their steak. The sandwich that another person prepares is not “preconsumed” in the same way.

Do you think so?

 

[carol44]

I think all food tastes good that someone else makes. Have you ever walked through a store that gives samples? Everything tastes wonderful, and then you try the product at home and it is not nearly so good.

 

[PickMeDown]

So, according to the researchers, those who are trying to lose weight should prepare their own food so that they eat less of it? This does not apply to me at all. When I prepare a sandwich, I make sure that it's something I really like even though I made it myself. If I don't like it, why make it?

 

[clan_NEt]

I think knowing and being part of the food making process may dampen the taste of the food. Somehow it may affect the way your mind perceives the food. Shrug.

Perhaps chiefs by profession or people who cook their own meals daily are in a better position to comment.

 

[makano]

Maybe because you will spend more energy on enjoying the food not prepared by you and not waste energy on preparing the food.

 

[Lee11]

Great question! One I have had quite a few chats about with friends and this is the conclusion we came to...
One is a chef and the other worked in a restaurant for a period of time. Both cannot stand the food that they worked with - one was sushi, the other pizza. Then another friend told us that apparently it is our sense of smell that becomes satiated while working with the food. So, as we are smelling it, it tricks a part of our brain - thinking we are eating it (or something to that effect)...

So. By the time you are ready to eat you have already been experiencing the ingredients by working with them and smelling it!

Since aroma is such a big and important part of eating - when it is prepared away from us, or we are not interacting so closely with the ingredients, we are now free to savour and enjoy it so much more.
Just a theory...

 

[dorothyperkins]

Maybe because you will spend more energy on enjoying the food not prepared by you and not waste energy on preparing the food.

That's the way it is. It's like having a world-class service in fine dining restaurant when all you gotta do is to sit, relax and savor the sandwich. Someone works it for you, saving a lot of energy and time for yourself.

 

[lexibethr]

Everything tastes better after someone else makes it. I know after cooking dinner I dont feel like eating at all but if I work late and my mom has the kids and cooks dinner, I will pig out, I dont know if its just missing moms cooking or if im just grateful that I didnt have to cook it.

 

[karmaman]

My wife complains of this problem. When she cooks, she gets excited about it and really enjoys preparing it. But when the food's done, she doesn't really want to eat it anymore. This actually makes a lot of sense because if I don't help her I'll always enjoy it more than when I prep the foods too.

 

[kat74]

That is so true it reminds me of my neighbor who recently gave birth. She did not like her home made food and so she would go to eat out or ask me to bring her some of my food. I also understand now why I eat more foods when I visit my friends than in my own house.

 

[UmiNoor]

That is an interesting research. So to eat less, you should prepare the food yourself? Is that what the research is implying. In that case, I should start to cook more often then. Actually, come to think of it, when I cook, I would taste the food occasionally to see if it tastes ok so by the time I finish cooking I would be full and I won't want to eat that much.

 

[monsterific]

So, according to the researchers, those who are trying to lose weight should prepare their own food so that they eat less of it?

LOL. This does not apply to me as well. Whether or not I prepared the food, I'll always end up consuming more than I should. I'm such a pig. Probably because I got to busy and not got too lazy to exercise.

 

[mika]

I do not taste what I am cooking and people around me wonders how would I know if it will just taste fine. I would say that I could know it through the smell of my dish. And if ever it does not taste so good, it is not a problem for me since I usually cook foods that I will like no matter if it will taste less delicious. Lol

It was not so hard to prepare a sandwich so I do not think energy lost could be the cause of loss of appetite.