There is an interesting article published in Appetite Magazine showing the results of a study by German and Swiss academics into the effect of color on food consumption. The Scientists found that eating from red plates and drinking from red cups reduced the amount that people ate by forty percent.
In the study, 41 male students were found to drink less tea from red marked cups. Then, when red, blue, and white plates were used to serve pretzels, the 104 test subjects ate less when served on a red plate.
The scientists hypothesize that humans associate red with “danger, prohibition and stop.” Ursula Arens from the British Dietetic Association, said: ‘Red may be associated with alarm or something primeval.’They are suggesting that the government may want to require that junk food be sold in red containers and even drinks in pubs be served in red glasses. Of course, I wonder how long it would take for red to then become associated with yummy snacks and booze. Then again, many people go to bars with fairly “primeval” interests.
Below is a song heralding the virtues of the Red Solo cup that appears to contradict these findings:
Source: Daily Mail
i believe mcdonald’s fries are served up in giant red containers.
Red and bright yellow is pretty common in the snack isle at my store.
Obviously these researchers have never spent time on an American college campus. If they had they would quickly learn that those bright red Solo cups do not appear to have any adverse affect on the intake of carbonated malted grain beverages.
Interesting…..
Could this be why tomatoes had been considered poisonous for many years?
Thanks Frankly. I added a video along the same lines . . .
Time for breakfast.
Scrambled eggs and strawberry jam? Or scrambled eggs and ketchup?
Or scrambled eggs and the blood of a freshly killed tomato, a little pepper, Worcestershire and some vodka?
Box turtles love red food, strawberries and tomatoes are like magnets to a box turtle. I never got any of the little wild strawberries in the yard when there was a box turtle living out back; I was faster on the hunt but s/he started earlier than I did, by lunch whatever few had turned red (or even pink) that day were gone.
(I’ve eaten off red dishes for 20 years – I should be a lot thinner.)
Im going to home depot right now and get enough red paint to paint my whole house then. Should lose that extra weight really fast.
Funny, went to find article and came up with this instead from SHAPE magazineColor Control: Eat Less, Workout More
RED: This intense and powerful color will not only get your blood pressure rising, but also cause your appetite to go into high gear. And, most of America’s popular-sit down and drive-through eateries have us all seeing red with their logos: Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, Wendy’s, Sonic, Dairy Queen, Arbys, Chili’s…the list goes on. I’d guess that the brand managers deliberately used the color red to lure people into their restaurants and make them eat, and eat and eat. So, don’t fall prey! However, since observing the color red can cause an energy surge, you can benefit from wearing red clothes while exercising…. And better yet, paint the walls of your in-home gym a vibrant red to get the most of your workouts.
Looks ;like still worth painting at least one room red. (:
( http://www.shape.com/blogs/fit-list-jay-cardiello/color-control-eat-less-workout-more )
Just got back from the store and checked out the junk-food isles. Red on packaging is minimal over-all but orange and bright yellow in some combination is rampant, 80% I’d say. There is something strangely attractive about fluorescent orange though- I bought a big bag of Cheetos and I know they taste horrible. I blame this ridiculous purchase entirely on the TurleyBlawg.
Not interesting.
OMG! Thanks ConLawCon! I’m sure Prof will take that into consideration and never befoul these pages with something some random doof on the Internet does not find interesting ever again.
I am not really convinced about this, but it still sounds better than all those controversial diets such as Gluten-free or Atkins weight loss program.
Very interesting theoryat the least. It seems that sometimes our toughest problems have the simplest solutions.