Recent Advances in Understanding Human Appetite: From Metrics to Influential Factors and Their Effects on Eating Behaviour

Dear Colleagues,

Consuming sufficient food to maintain energy stores is necessary for the survival of all living species including humans. Yet, appetite, the system that influences energy intake, is influenced by psychological, physiological and neural signals, which make humans vulnerable to under- as well as overconsumption.

To understand the complex nature of human appetite, it is necessary to study the various homeostatic and hedonic drivers (and their interactions) involved in the regulation of eating, along with the characteristics that differentiate healthy intake behavior from consumption below and above physiological needs. Of equal importance to the study of appetite are proper (reliable and valid) means for its measurement, no matter if the focus is on measuring the explicit subjective response either in isolation or in combination with implicit measures, or endocrine or neural biomarkers (to mention a few examples).

In this Special Issue, we aim to bring together research that contributes to a state-of-the-art understanding of human appetite, its measurement, and implications for eating behavior.

This includes:

• Innovative approaches to the measurement of human appetite: consumer science methodologies alone or in combination with endocrine and/or neural measures for the measurement of the homeostatic and/or hedonic appetite response.
• The effect of product-related factors on human appetite: how intrinsic product factors such as ingredients, collative properties and sensory properties drive alterations in human desire to eat, hunger and satiety.
• The effect of person characteristics on human appetite: how biological, psychological and cultural factors affect the homeostatic and/or hedonic appetite response.
• Human appetite in relation to eating behavior: the relation between subjective sensations of appetite and desire to eat, food choice and/or intake.

In this Special Issue of Foods, we encourage the submission of manuscripts utilizing sensory and consumer science methodologies alone or in combination with endocrine and/or neural measures for measuring human appetite. This includes (but is not limited to): original research papers of studies measuring the effect of product and/or subject characteristics on appetite, method development papers focusing on means to measure appetite (before, during and/or after food intake), review articles on homeostatic and/or hedonic aspects of appetite, and perspectives on new approaches to appetite-related research. Manuscripts applying non-consumer science methodologies only (e.g., endocrine or neural methodologies) are not within the scope of this Special Issue.

The ultimate aim is to publish this Special Issue collection as an open source book volume, to act as a tool for understanding advances in appetite-related research.

Prof. Dr. Derek V. Byrne
Dr. Barbara Vad Andersen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Publisher’s Notice

Due to a website related technical error, the incorrect Special Issue deadline has been displayed. This deadline date has now been updated to reflect the accurate closure of this Special Issue.