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This study aims to explore the phenomenon of visceral food pleasure, described as a unitary experience that, after an initial sense of pleasure and relief generated by the satisfaction of eating impulses, is followed by negative feelings – such as guilt and worry – linked to the consumption of hedonic or unhealthy foods.

An exploratory approach has been adopted. In particular, the critical incident technique among 87 individuals has been used to extract insights about visceral food pleasure.

Contrary to previous research results, this study shows that viscearl food pleasure is not a unitary phenomenon, identifying four types of different facets, two of which have a negative valence in terms of felt emotions post-consumption and psychological well-being (i.e. the “greedy” and the “maladaptive” experiences). More importantly, the other two facets are associated with positive consequences in terms of emotions felt post-consumption and perceived psychological well-being (i.e. the “social” and the “fair sin” experiences).

Companies that provide food experiences can prime meanings that influence consumers’ perceptions of the episode to elicit positive emotions post-consumption and psychological well-being.

Promoting a more holistic view of food consumption and psychological well-being can free consumers from negative emotions during food consumption episodes. Priming a particular meaning can be a way to do that. However, as visceral experience can still lead to health issues, this must be combined with an education process that makes consumers aware of their food habits.

This research challenges the idea that visceral food experiences are always negative. Indeed, when associated with particular meanings (i.e. social and reward), they have a positive valence post-consumption.

In order to achieve sustainable development objectives, safeguard the ecosystem, combat global warming and preserve biodiversity for a more sustainable and secure future, the ecological footprint (EF) must be reduced. Therefore, embracing holistic methods, emphasizing renewable energy (RN) and environmental taxes (ET) is crucial. Therefore, the present study aims to capture the effect of ET and RN on EF in Germany.

To achieve this aim, the novel Fourier-based Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ADL) cointegration and the time and frequency-based connections among the variables are investigated in this work throughout the 1994–2021 time span using the wavelet analytic methods, including wavelet power spectrum (WPS) and wavelet coherence (WC) methods, respectively.

The study’s results express that (1) RN, ET and EF are cointegrated in the long run; (2) EF and RN have volatility; (3) RN use in Germany prevents environmental deterioration and (4) ET decreases EF.

The research findings imply that Germany needs rigorous environmental restrictions and enforcement of alternate energy sources for energy use plans and sustainable production objectives.

To the best of our knowledge, the effect of RN and ET on EF in Germany has not been comprehensively explored by using newly developed econometrics techniques and a single dataset. Therefore, the study provides important policy implementations for the German government and is also likely to open debate on the concept.