Wired for harsh food environments: Human spatial memory favours the effortless location and consumption of high-calorie foods

Rachelle De Vries,Sanne Boesveldt,Alejandra Sotomayor Sainz,Joyce Copier,Emely De Vet

doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104478

Rachelle De Vries, Sanne Boesveldt + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104478

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Abstract

Human memory automatically prioritises locations of high-calorie foods, likely reflecting an adaptation for foraging in harsh ancestral food environments. We investigated whether this high-calorie bias in human spatial memory yields unhealthy obesogenic implications for individual eating behaviour in present-day food-abundant settings. In an online study, we tested the food spatial memory of a diverse sample of 405 individuals, as well as examined associations between the high-calorie spatial memory bias and the self-reported routine frequency of high-calorie snack consumption, exposure to high-calorie food environments, and BMI of a subset of 316 individuals. The high-calorie spatial memory bias was not directly associated with high-calorie snack consumption frequency or BMI. However, a greater expression of the bias indirectly predicted a higher BMI, by mediating a stronger habit of purchasing high-calorie snack foods. Although individuals from various sociodemographic groups expressed the high-calorie bias in spatial memory, our results suggest that those with a better inhibitory control to high-calorie foods were protected from bias-related tendencies to frequent high-calorie food environments (e.g. fast-food outlets).

Highlights

Our present-day food environment features an overabundance of palatable calorie-rich foods – promoting individuals toconsume these unhealthy items (Swinburn et al, 2011)
A more conservative approach was adopted during classification, as we only considered outlets that offer an overrepresentation of high-calorie foods as highcalorie food environments
Expression of the High-calorie spatial memory bias To demonstrate the existence of a high-calorie bias in human spatial memory, we analysed food spatial memory data using a linear mixed effects model (LMM), due to its flexibility and robustness in modelling continuous correlated outcomes (Krueger & Tian, 2004)

Summary

Introduction

Our present-day food environment features an overabundance of palatable calorie-rich foods – promoting individuals to (over)consume these unhealthy items (Swinburn et al, 2011). About 99 percent of human evolutionary history is characterised by extensive hunting-gathering activities within a food insecure environ ment, where food availability fluctuated in space and time (Chakra varthy & Booth, 2004; Eaton, 2006; Ulijaszek, 2002) In such environments, a fitness advantage was gained by individuals who evolved (cognitive) mechanisms that maximised the net energy gained during foraging (Schoener, 1971; Winterhalder, 1981). Central to the present work, is the discovery that human spatial memory appears to show sensitivity to the caloric content of potential foods, and automatically prioritises the lo cations of foods higher in caloric density

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