With the obesity epidemic out of control, it is timely to reflect just what makes us want to put food in to our mouths - often in quantities much greater than our energy needs.

If we ate just in response to the natural feeling of hunger and enough to satisfy that hunger without feeling overly full (a feeling of satiety), we would probably be eating an appropriate quantity for energy balance without trying.

But unfortunately many other forces are at play in the modern world that entice us to eat more often and in greater portion sizes than we need. We have become conditioned to eat in a hedonistic way - that is we tend to eat for pleasure and comfort rather than to satisfy genuine hunger. This has largely come about as a result of clever marketing on the part of food companies that want us to consume more and the ready availability of tasty energy dense foods and drinks that are high in both sugars and fat. In addition life in the fast lane and fast food seem to go hand in hand.

So what can we do to combat this over consumption? Apart from lobbying for a change to the obesogenic environment in which we live, we can deliberately choose food that satisfies hunger for longer. Fatty food has been shown only to satisfy hunger for a short time and after a few hours one is craving more fatty food.

On the other hand food that contains fibre or protein has been found to be much more satiating and is a deterrent to further eating too much too soon. In other words these foods help to prevent overconsumption.

Fibre is found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, beans, cereals, grains, seaweed and nuts.

Healthy choices of protein are found in lean meat, fish without batter, low fat dairy products, skinless chicken and eggs. Some foods such as legumes, nuts, breads and cereal grains are rich in protein and fibre.

Another thing we can do is learn or relearn how to recognise hunger and only eat in response to that feeling. This will help us get away from that automatic grazing on high sugar and fatty snacks such as potato chips, snack bars, chocolate and biscuits that we may eat purely on a cue from a TV ad or a supermarket checkout display - not because we are hungry.