Imagine biting into a fresh apple feeling the Crisp sound of the peel that breaks under yours teeth. This soundtypical of foods that provide a “crunch” such as crisps, is amplified by the bones of the skull through the conduction bone, travels towards the deeper areas of the ear, transforming into pulses electrochemical that the brain processes as pleasure. The reasons for its pleasantness can be found in the association between food Crisp And food freshwhich may have evolutionarily influenced our pleasure circuits. So the sound of food that chew it is not just a background element, but a component essential of your experience sensory: crunchiness, therefore, has both a physical and psychological effect that pushes you to continue eating.
The role of sensoriality
The sound has a component that is perhaps secondary, but still essential in thesensory experience that we have with food. When we chew, the noise produced by crushing of food yes propaga in the mouth which becomes an echo chamber, it is amplified by the bones of the skull until it reaches the ears (a dynamic which takes the name of bone conductionalso used to build the latest generation of headphones). Some call it “chewing music”.
The vibration reaches the eardrum but above all areas of the inner ear such as the cochleaa small snail-shaped structure that contains the hair cells responsible for transforming mechanical vibrations into electrochemical nerve impulses, and the basilar membranewhich oscillates significantly depending on the vibrations it receives. Vibrations are transformed into electrical signals which, travelling along the acoustic nervethey arrive towards the auditory cortexarea of the brain responsible for processing sounds.
Crunchiness as an indicator of quality
From a biological point of view, the crunchiness can be seen as a food freshness sign that we are chewing. A ripe apple; a freshly picked lettuce; a seasonal cucumber: all foods that, if freshthey have that typical crunchiness that is a quality indexa sign that they are neither overripe nor rotten, as they do not appear limp, soft or mushy.
Something similar happens for the dried or toasted productssuch as biscuits or crisps. After some time these products change their organoleptic qualitiesoften becoming soft and doughy. When this happens it means that the product has absorbed humidity, i.e. water, which is one of the main accelerators of food deterioration. There is therefore a certain correlation between the healthiness of some foods and their crunchiness which may have become ingrained in our food preferences through the evolutionary process as a signal of safe food, activating pleasure circuits at the crunch of the food.
Psychology of Crunchiness
Crunchiness is not just a matter of physical sensations, but also involves psychological aspectsThe desire for crunchy foods can also arise, for example, from the desire for a sensory variation that breaks the monotony of softer and more uniform foods. This change in consistency is often associated with a greater satisfaction during the mealcontributing to an overall feeling of pleasure. Furthermore, the consumption of crunchy foods may be linked to a sense of gratification immediate, often sought in moments of stress or as a reward. Studies show that the crunchiness of a food is highly correlated with its pleasantness.
As we often see, what evolutionarily stratifies as good behavior for our survival, becomes a trait of many cultureseven, sometimes, to the detriment of the “pros” that distinguish foods that are naturally crunchy. In many culinary traditionscrunchiness is in fact sought after in both savoury and sweet dishes. For example, in Asian cuisine, ingredients such as soy sprouts and fried vegetables are loved for their crunchy texture. Similarly, in Western cultures, crisps, snacks and crunchy biscuits are very popular, highlighting the distorted mechanism that we have encountered. It’s the same old story in which Man sapiens constantly stumbles upon: we look directly for the Pleasure (the “crunch”) leaving in second floor The main reason whereby that feeling of pleasure was promoted in our brain (the freshness of the ingested food).
