Revive Stronger
Food porn is real (science says so)
Food porn, the arrangement of meats to look like phallic objects…
Lol…no!!!
That’s not what I’m talking about, although I’m not going to discount that people might find that somewhat exciting (not me of course). What I am talking about is #foodporn that you see dotted around the internet, especially on instagram. Heck it’s a great hashtag and I even use it myself.
If you’re dieting you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about (as you spend far too long scrolling across images on IG).
A search for #foodporn brings up over 99,000,000 posts, there’s obviously something to it!
The thing is the way food is described, the way it’s packaged, it’s smell, everything down to how it’s laid out on your plate impacts how much we enjoy it. The truth is we taste with our eyes, noise, perceived expectations and obviously mouths.
What this means is we put a premium experience on certain foods and discount others, even if they’re no different.
Table of Contents
We eat with our eyes
If you were given the same food but it was presented to you in a different way, you wouldn’t be fooled into thinking they taste different would you?
You certainly wouldn’t claim one was clearly of superior quality?
Well, in one study 175 participants were given a brownie (lucky them) and the only difference was the way in which it was presented; on a china plate, paper plate or a napkin. [1] They were asked to rate the flavour and how much they would pay for it. Guess what happened?
1.] China Plate: Excellent & $1.27
2.] Paper Plate: Good & $0.76
3.] Napkin: Okay & $0.53
This has some real implications.
We pay more for food that looks higher quality, and we perceive it to taste better.
[bctt tweet=”Your food will taste better if it’s presented better” username=”revivestronger”]
Practical Implications:
- Make ‘diet friendly’ foods look delicious e.g. put your oatmeal in a nice china bowl and sprinkle some cinnamon on top to add some contrasting colour.
- Take particular care of presentation when dieting, this should provide you more satisfaction and enjoyment, hard when calories are low.
Expectations are reality
OK so maybe the way foods are presented to us make a big difference, I guess that makes sense.
Surely however, just a name or description can’t impact how much we enjoy food/drink?
I wouldn’t be so sure, we all know brands are big business and it doesn’t end there, the way foods and drinks are described also impact our enjoyment, even when the product doesn’t change.
In another study this exact thing was found, within a cafeteria the same foods were given different descriptions and this massively impacted not just how well they sold but also people’s enjoyment, and valuation of the food. If you change the name of your ‘chocolate cake’ to ‘Grandma’s incredibly rich chocolate’ cake you may well sell 27% more of that exact same cake. [1] Not only that but in the study they found those who ate descriptive foods had more good things to say about the whole cafeteria, describing the chefs as ‘well trained’.
Just because their foods were described differently.
The following descriptors all impact our food perceptions:
- Geographic labels
- Nostalgic labels
- Sensory labels
- Brands
That’s why ‘Taste the Difference Organic Santo Domingo 70% Dark Chocolate’ will always taste better than ‘Sainsbury’s Basics milk chocolate’, it might not be down to any difference in the food/drink itself, but because we perceive the descriptive foods to be superior. I’m sure there are some small differences between the above two products, but probably not as many as we might expect. This isn’t just the food industry, it happens with almost any consumable product for example most clothes are made in the same factory, but the brand they have stamped on them adds a massive surcharge.
[bctt tweet=”‘Taste the Difference Organic Santo Domingo 70% Dark Chocolate’ will always taste better than ‘Dark Chocolate’ even if it’s the same” username=”revivestronger”]
Retailers, restaurants and fast food chains all use these to their advantage (and so can you- more below), for example McDonald’s have their ‘Happy Meal’, and restaurants don’t sell ‘steak’ they provide ‘New Zealand Prime Steak’. I’ll be honest I can’t taste the difference between branded cereal and own brand, the same goes for many soft drinks, breads, grains, dairy products and almost any food.
Practical Implications:
- Just have an awareness of your perception of brands
- Disguise your cheaper varieties e.g. put your ‘Cola’ into a glass
- Name your ‘diet friendly’ meals e.g. no you’re not just having ‘oatmeal’, you’re having ‘creamy handmade oats’
‘Health Halos’
Further to the above point; new research has shown people over-consume ‘Fitness Foods’ [2].
Which could lead to unwanted weight gain.
Plus a big dent in your wallet.
What are ‘Fitness Foods’?
“They are foods that otherwise might be ‘forbidden’ to the persons diet, like a chocolate bar, but branded as ‘fit’.“ In this study they used Trail Mix and then had the product but labelled as ‘fit’ and added a running shoe to the packaging.
• What was studied?
Participants were given trail-mix style snacks marked either “Fitness” or “Trail Mix” and were told to pretend that they were at home helping themselves to an afternoon snack, and were given eight minutes to taste and rate the product.
They were then given the option to exercise as vigorously as they liked on a stationary bicycle after eating the snack.
• What was found?
Those who were actively watching their weight actually over-ate the ‘Fitness’ branded food and did not burn as many calories on the stationary bike.
• Why is this a problem?
It should be pretty clear; the energy balance equation has two sides, energy in and energy out, by increasing consumption and decreasing exercise, both ends are being hit. Thus, this could quite easily lead to an unbalanced equation, leading to weight gain.
I think this is quite a commonly experienced phenomenon in the fitness community. Many of us are driven wrongly by the idea that foods can be ‘good’ and ‘bad’, or ‘fit’ and ‘unfit’ as it were. As seen this can lead to unwanted consequences such as weight gain. This is because we are missing what is more important, total calorie consumption, and its impact on our own energy balance.
Commonly thought as ‘good’ or ‘fit’ foods, that are troublesome (calorie dense):
- Nuts.
- Salad.
- Fatty Fish.
- Flap Jacks.
- Fruit Juices.
- Dried Fruit.
- Avocado.
- Olive Oil.
- Seeds.
The list could go on, these foods are given ‘health halos’, they can do no wrong. Now I am not saying the above foods are therefore ‘bad’, if you think that, then you’re missing the point. The point is that the above foods are calorie dense, and therefore can easily be over-consumed, and the ‘good’/’clean’ label can make this easier.
No food is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, food is what it is, nutrition.
Macronutrients.
Micronutrients.
Calories.
Because our bodies don’t know what we’re eating, only what we’re getting from the food eaten. As seen, ‘fit’ foods can lead to unwanted consequences, just like ‘bad’ or ‘unfit’ foods can.
Labelling foods as such does nothing to benefit us as consumers.
[bctt tweet=”our bodies don’t know what we’re eating, only what we’re getting from the food eaten” username=”revivestronger”]
Food Porn is real
As you can see the way foods are presented and described to us have real implications.
We’ll see them as better or healthier.
We’ll be inclined to eat more of them.
We’ll even pay more for them.
This will not only potentially dent our health, but also our bank account.
So beware of food porn, it might just catch you out…
WHAT NEXT?
If you liked this, you will love:
Join my free facebook group or add me on snapchat (revivestronger) and ask your question there, I will respond asap. Or if you’re after a fresh training programme I have a free 4 week plan using DUP that you can download for free here.
One more thing…
Do you have a friend who would love the above? Share this article with them and let me know what they think.
[bctt tweet=”Food porn is real (science says so)” username=”revivestronger”]
References:
- Wansink, B. (2006) Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. New York, NY: Bantam.
- Joerg Koenigstorfer, Hans Baumgartner. The Effect of Fitness Branding on Restrained Eaters’ Food Consumption and Post-Consumption Physical Activity. Journal of Marketing Research, 2015
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