Summary
Why do we enjoy foods that crunch?
Listener Sheila Harris contacted The Food Chain with that question and asked us to find out if the food texture has any benefits.
Ruth Alexander speaks to Danielle Reed, Chief Science Officer at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, US, who says that crunchy foods signal freshness and help our brains decide if a food is safe to eat.
Paediatric dentist Ashley Lerman in New York, US says crunchy fruit and vegetables can act as a natural tooth cleaner.
Anthropologist Professor Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel at the University at Buffalo in New York, US says that the texture of our diets can impact the shape of our faces. Her work has studied how jaw shape has changed as humans switched from hunter gatherer to farming diets.
Ciarán Forde, Professor of Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour at Wageningen University in the Netherlands explains how crunchy and other hard textures could help us to eat more slowly and consume fewer calories.
And could crunch make foods more palatable? Chef Dulsie Fadzai Mudekwa in Zimbabwe says the texture is key to convincing people to try edible insects.
If you have a question for The Food Chain email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
Produced by Beatrice Pickup.
(Image: a woman biting a stick of celery. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm no longer ravenous. I'll no longer eat until I fall asleep. The Hunger Game, |
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| 0:10.7 | story with these drugs. The uptake, the amount of product that's been sold, the amounts of money |
| 0:15.1 | is cost. What the drugs do, how they work, and the knock-on effects of their widespread use. |
| 0:20.5 | We'll be sitting here in three years' time going, oh, it caused problems that we're now going to have to fix. |
| 0:26.2 | The Hunger Game with me, Professor Gilesio. |
| 0:29.1 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.3 | A crunch of a fresh apple is nothing better in the world, honestly, to me. |
| 0:39.7 | I like my food with a bit of bite, so crunchy is top of my list. |
| 0:43.8 | There's nothing like the crunch of celery, I think. Yes, lovely. |
| 0:46.8 | Crunch, we just love it. |
| 0:49.1 | And in this episode of The Food Chain from the BBC World Service with me, Ruth Alexander, |
| 0:54.4 | we're going to be finding out why. |
| 0:57.6 | We'll learn what vital information it gives us about food. |
| 1:01.5 | But it just stimulates your sensory organs like, okay, something special is about to happen here. |
| 1:07.5 | While you are, watch you crunch. |
| 1:09.5 | So it really develops the whole form of the face. |
| 1:12.5 | How it could help you to lose weight. And what else still remains to be discovered about the power |
| 1:19.3 | of crunch. We got thinking about this after a listener sent an email to the food chain at |
| 1:24.8 | bbc.c.c.co.uk. With a question. |
| 1:29.2 | My name's Sheila Harrison, |
| 1:31.4 | and I am based in Surrey in England. |
... |
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