Eating sugar will make you fat, eating less will make you depressed... Is it possible that "the food is still the same food, but tastes sweeter"?

As the saying goes, if you don't lose weight in April, you will regret it in May, June, July, August and even September.

If you want to lose weight, in addition to moving your legs, it is also necessary to control your diet: eat less, especially less sugar.

The problem is, we all understand the truth! But if there is no sugar, happiness may fly away...

Well, here are some tips from psychologists that can make you feel that "the same food becomes sweeter" and eat less sugar without you realizing it, helping you to walk sweetly and lightly on the road to controlling sugar.

Use a white dinner plate, preferably a round one

First, start with the dessert plate: Choose a white round plate to easily make the food sweeter.

In 2012, Spanish food engineering researcher Betina and his colleagues conducted an experiment to see how the color of the plate affects the sweetness of food. They placed the same strawberry mousse on a black plate and a white plate, and then asked volunteers to taste the strawberry mousse on the two plates in turn and then rate the sweetness of the two strawberry mousses ("1" means not sweet at all, "10" means very sweet).

Experimental strawberry mousse and two-color plates | References [1]

The results showed that the volunteers gave an average sweetness score of 7.04 to the strawberry mousse on the white plate, while the one on the black plate only scored 6.17. In other words, everyone thought the strawberry mousse on the white plate tasted sweeter.

In addition to color, the shape of the plate is also important: desserts served on round plates taste sweeter than those served on square plates.

In 2013, Canadian psychologists Stewart and Goss also conducted an experiment that was equivalent to an enhanced version of the previous experiment: they placed cheesecakes on four different plates and asked volunteers to taste them and then rate the sweetness of the cakes (ranging from 0 to 100). The four plates were the same size: white round plate, white square plate, black round plate, and black square plate.

Four types of plates used in the experiment | References [2]

The results of the experiment showed that the cakes in the white round plate tasted significantly sweeter than those in the white square plate. The volunteers gave the cakes in the white round plate an average sweetness score of 68.37, while the cakes in the white square plate only scored 59.51. As for the cakes in the black plate, they were generally not as sweet as those in the white plate: the black round plate and black square plate cakes scored 55.38 and 51.21 respectively, with little difference.

It seems that if you want to feel the sweetness of food to the greatest extent, the best way is to put them on a white plate and give full play to its sweetness buff. Foods with a little sugar also have the power to make people happy.

What to watch before eating:

Round, familiar

In addition to plate selection, psychologists have also discovered some "seemingly fantastic but effective" methods from a visual perspective. For example, just looking at specific content before eating can increase our sensitivity to sweetness and make it easier to taste sweetness in food.

What to watch?

In 2013, Professor Zhang Genhua, a Chinese food engineering scholar, and Professor Roy, a chemistry professor from India, studied the relationship between visual stimulation and sweetness sensitivity. They asked volunteers to taste 6 cups of sucrose water of different concentrations, from low to high, in the order of 0, 1.5, 3.1, 3.9, 4.7 and 5.5 g/L, in ordinary white paper cups.

In the experiment, volunteers looked at the pictures first and then tasted the food. Reference [3]

Before tasting the sugar water, the volunteers first needed to look at a random one of a set of graphics displayed on a computer screen, then randomly taste a cup of sucrose solution and record the sweetness they tasted.

Six patterns used in the experiment | References [3]

The experimental results found that if the volunteers had not seen any patterns, their threshold for tasting sweetness was 3.9g/L. That is to say, they could not taste the sweetness of sugar water with a concentration lower than 3.9g/L, and they would only feel sweet when the concentration was higher than 3.9g/L.

However, when the volunteers looked at the perfect circle or oval pattern before tasting, their sweetness threshold dropped to 3.1g/L, which means that the students could feel the sweetness even with a lower concentration of sugar water. Except for the perfect circle and oval, other shapes did not have this effect.

In addition to shapes, seeing familiar words can also increase sweetness sensitivity.

In the same study, the researchers also selected six phrases with different forms and semantics for everyone to watch. These included the most familiar and most understandable words (such as "McDonald's" and "007"), some familiar but unclear words (such as "159" and "one five nine"), and two words that people don't know much and don't know the meaning of (such as the rare Chinese character "垚硎辔" and the German phrase "Eins Fünf Neun").

6 groups of words used in the experiment | References [3]

The same experimental process as before, volunteers randomly read a group of words and then randomly tasted a cup of sugar water. The experimental results showed that after reading "McDonald's" and "007", their sweetness threshold also dropped to 3.1g/L, which means that it became easier to taste sweetness, while reading those unfamiliar or semantically unclear words did not have this effect.

This study once again tells us that round shapes do have a sweetening effect on food. It also reminds everyone that if you want to eat something sweeter, try not to look at obscure and unfamiliar things, such as data, reports, and papers...

Listen to the smooth and silky melody,

It will make the chocolate taste smoother and sweeter

Do you remember the melody that was often played in dessert shops? You can't name the song, but you vaguely feel that it is sweet? The taste of desserts makes the song sound sweeter. In fact, listening to a song with a specific melody will also make food taste sweeter.

In 2017, Belgian psychologist Carvalho verified the effect of listening to music of different fluency on sweet taste. They recruited 116 volunteers to taste chocolate while listening to music.

The picture is for reference only, not volunteers in the experiment丨giphy.com

The volunteers were asked to listen to a smooth melody and a rough melody. The former is usually presented in the form of long, continuous notes (for example, the long notes of the erhu or violin), while the latter is usually presented as a series of short notes (such as the sound produced by rapid and repeated plucking).

While listening, the volunteers needed to hold a piece of chocolate in their mouths and wait for it to melt before eating it. After the music ended, they needed to rate the smoothness and sweetness of the chocolate.

Volunteers' ratings of the sweetness of chocolate, black represents smooth melody and gray represents rough melody | Reference [4]

The experimental results showed that although the chocolate they ate was the same, the volunteers thought that the chocolate they ate when listening to the smooth melody was smoother and sweeter, while the chocolate they ate when listening to the rough melody was more astringent and bitter.

Therefore, if you want to taste more sweetness, you might as well listen to some smooth string music while eating to enhance the silky taste and sweetness of the food.

at last……

A reminder: The above are just some new ideas. You can learn from them critically and use the techniques flexibly. If you really want to control sugar, try to avoid strawberry mousse, cheesecake, chocolate, etc.

References

[1] Piqueras-Fiszman, B., Alcaide, J., Roura, E., & Spence, C. (2012). Is it the plate or is it the food? Assessing the influence of the color (black or white) and shape of the plate on the perception of the food placed on it. Food Quality and Preference, 24(1), 205-208.

[2]Stewart, PC, & Goss, E. (2013). Plate shape and color interact to influence taste and quality judgments. Flavor, 2(1), 1-9.

[3]Liang, P., Roy, S., Chen, ML, & Zhang, GH (2013). Visual influence of shapes and semantic familiarity on human sweet sensitivity.

[4]Carvalho, FR, Wang, QJ, Van Ee, R., Persoone, D., & Spence, C. (2017). “Smooth operator”: Music modulates the perceived creaminess, sweetness, and bitterness of chocolate. Appetite, 108, 383-390.

Author:

Editor: Maiya Yang

An AI

I chose to critically absorb the strawberry mousse, cake, and chocolate.

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