Food variety affects food selection and variety-seeking behaviors in an immersive virtual reality food buffet

While food variety has been shown to affect intake when predetermined meals are served, such studies do not indicate how variety affects food choices when participants can select individual foods to build their meal. We examined whether increasing food variety in an immersive virtual reality (iVR) buffet affects the amount and types of food selected. In a randomized crossover design, 50 adults (18–65 yr, 32 females) selected foods for a meal once a week for 3 weeks. The number of available foods varied across 3 conditions – low, medium, and high – which corresponded to 9, 18, and 27 foods respectively. The variety of both higher and lower energy-dense options increased proportionally across variety conditions. Increasing the variety of foods had a significant effect on food and energy selection (p < 0.001). Participants selected an additional 286 g (422 kcal) in the medium variety condition and 301 g (649 kcal) in the high variety condition when compared to the low variety condition (all p < 0.001). As variety increased, participants selected a greater number of total foods, which was primarily driven by higher energy-dense foods compared to lower energy-dense foods (all p < 0.05). The proportion of higher energy-dense foods selected increased from 47 % in the low variety condition, to 51 % in the medium (p = 0.03), and 55 % in high (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that the wide variety of foods available in our eating environment can influence the amount of food and energy selected for meal consumption.