A friend of mine always asks the host of the dinner party to describe each dish they have made. She could be helping herself and her fellow diners eat better by making them more aware of their meal.
The factors that influence what we choose to eat and what we think about the experience is being researched by a professor at Oxford University. His research shows the extent to which the choices we make are shaped by how we engage with our food, whether we eat with forks or fingers, or listen to music while eating. The following techniques will help your brain make better decisions.
Many of us now know that serving meals on a smaller plate can control how much we eat, because our brains believe there to be more food there than there actually is. This has a profound effect on satiety, yet the brain can be fooled by the tools we use, as well as eating with our hands, which engages our senses and makes us more conscious. He cites the example of chef Andoni Aduriz of the world-famous Mugaritz restaurant in northern Spain, who has taken cutlery away for all courses in order to make people think more about how they interact with their food.
Anything you can do to pay more attention and eat more slowly will likely enhance the sensations associated with eating and mean that you are satisfied with less. It will affect satiety and help you make healthier choices. Many of our food behaviours are not suited for that. If you drink coffee from a cup with a lid, you miss out on a key part of the experience, which is the smell of the mug. If you enjoy your first coffee like that, you won't feel tempted by a second. Touch can play a role in satiety and satisfaction. The rising popularity of bowl food in recent years is due to the fact that you can pick it up and bring it closer to you.
We eat first with our eyes, and that is what food psychologists have proven since Roman gourmand Apicius noted. It has been shown that the appearance of a salad can affect the taste of it, so a salad with a variety of leaves and colors will taste better than a salad with just a few leaves. When it comes to premade food, we should remember that we eat with our eyes, particularly when it is asymmetrical. For all the heated discussion about which way round to eat chocolate, it seems eating it side up maximizes our sensory experience, because it is the energy-dense, chocolatey top our brains find so appealing.
The first bite of a chocolate bar tastes better than the next one, and our tastebuds become habituated. We can use this reaction to our advantage and reduce the amount of food we consume by packing as much of it as possible into the first mouthful. It is more difficult at home, but it is being used in the design of readymade foods.
A lot of the literature in sensory marketing shows that you can change people's food choices with music. People will drink more if the music is loud. There is emerging evidence that loud noises can make people eat less healthy food. If you listen to jazz and classical music, for example, you will find that people prefer healthy foods more than American rock, which is something to consider if you are shopping. In a study by Portuguese researchers, a supermarket played the sound of the sea near the fish counter and fish sales rose dramatically.
It is true that we tend to eat more in the company of others, but one doesn't want to recommend eating alone. There are ways to improve the experience of a communal meal and encourage diners to focus on the food. One way to get people involved in the process is to serve up dishes so they can help themselves or encourage them to use herbs or seasonings. Multiple courses, rather than one big spread, creates hooks for memory and slows people down. It strikes me how often you go to people's houses and they make food, and we don't discuss it, and how nice it would be.
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