We learnt about the 8 senses and how we use them when we eat in part 1 of this series, and how a hyper-response can lead to a sensory aversion to certain foods in part 2.
So what role do hypo-responses play in eating?
People who have a hypo-response have a reduced response to a sensory input, and as such often need a much stronger stimuli to produce a reaction. This can have a significant impact on eating, and the types of foods that are likely to be preferred.
Let’s have a look at the different senses and what a hypo-response may be:
Visual (sight)
Having a hypo-response to visual inputs means that a person will have difficulty seeing foods as individual objects. They may just see outlines or have difficulty telling certain objects apart.
People with hypo vision may rely on other senses, such as touch, to explore foods to be able to identify them. They may also have a preference for very bright, vivid colours that help a food to stand out.
Olfactory (smell)
Ever had a blocked nose and lost your sense of smell? Perhaps you experienced this with a COVID infection? Then you can relate to what someone with hypo-responses to smell would experience.
Subtle odours from foods will often go unnoticed, making those foods appear uninteresting or unappealing. Hypo-responders to smell may even be drawn to foods with very strong odours and seek these out actively (blue cheese, anyone?)
Tactile (touch)
Being hypo-responsive to touch means that it can take a lot of pressure on the skin before a person registers that they are touching something or being touched. A hypo-responsive person is likely to not notice they’ve got food smeared around the outside of their mouth.
They often also struggle to detect temperature and find it hard to know if a food is too hot or too cold.
This places them at risk of burning their mouth if a food temperature is at either extreme.
Auditory (hearing)
Those with a hypo-response to hearing will have a reduced perception to sounds. Unlike hyper-responders, these people won’t be bothered by the sound of other people eating because they can’t detect it.
A person that is hypo-responsive may seek out louder noises for sensory satisfaction. This can drive food choices as they may have a strong preference for foods that make louder noises when eaten, such as the loud crunching sound made by potato crisps.
Gustatory (taste)
Imagine every mouthful of food tasting like cardboard. It’s not going to really motivate you to eat the meal, is it?
Again, this is a hypo-response that many people can relate to – loss of taste is another common symptom of COVID but can also happen if you’ve burnt your tongue eating something too hot. In those instances, the experience is temporary, but for a hypo-responder that’s their day-to-day experience. As you can imagine, this can drive a preference for foods with a lot of flavour – very spicy/bitter/sour/salty foods are often firm favourites of a hypo-responder.
Vestibular (balance)
People with a hypo-response to vestibular inputs tend to really enjoy all sorts of movement and constantly seek this out. This is often seen as continuous rocking backwards and forwards, and never sitting still.
These behaviours can make it difficult to sit down and complete a meal, especially if the meal contains foods that may take some time to coordinate cutlery and eating.
Being constantly on the go also means that these people have a very high energy expenditure so it may be tricky to get enough food into them to fuel all that movement and healthy growth.
Proprioception (movement)
Being hypo-responsive to proprioception means that there’s a reduced awareness of how your body moves through the space around you. These people may come across as being accident-prone and bump into objects on a regular basis. They may struggle to use cutlery to accurately deliver food to their mouth and prefer instead to use their hands to eat.
Interoception (internal)
With interoception those who are hypo-responsive have reduced awareness of their internal signals. They can go hours, or even days, without getting a hunger cue to eat, and generally need prompting to remember to stop for a meal. They can also be at risk of dehydration as the feeling of thirst isn’t experienced to prompt them to drink. They also won’t respond to early fullness cues that would typically let us know when to stop eating. As a result they can often eat in excess of their energy needs.
As you can see, much like hyper-responses, being hypo-responsive to any of the senses can also have a profound effect on the types of foods that you will want to eat and also potentially affect the amount of food that you eat – maybe even if you eat at all.
And as mentioned in part 2 we can’t change a person’s sensory experience but identifying hypo-responses is crucial to improve food intakes. Adjusting the types of foods and the way they are presented can minimise the impact hypo-responses have on food intakes.
Stay tuned for the 4th and final part of the Sensory Experience of Eating series where we explore sensory discrimination and learned aversions.
If you feel that you or a family member have sensory issues with foods, our dietitian Michelle Saunders is trained in the SOS Approach and can help you overcome this barrier.
