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Colors always bring different feelings to people. Red can make people happy and warm.
Blue and purple can make people calm and feel cold. Different people have different preferences. Some people like cool colors and some like warm colors. But I don’t know if you have noticed that even people who like blue very much have always found it difficult to accept blue. Food
You will find that you have eaten food of various colors, but blue is missing. Why does blue food make people lose their appetite?
Evolutionary Psychology Perspective
In nature, blue plants generally have strong toxins, such as poisonous mushrooms . So in our traditional impression, blue food must be poisonous.
The ancient ancestors also understood this truth. The ancients had underdeveloped technology and could not judge whether the food was poisonous. They could only experience it personally. After a large number of death cases, they summarized some rules and could judge whether the food was poisonous by its color.
In nature, almost all blue foods that can be seen are poisonous, so our ancestors firmly remember that blue foods are poisonous, and it is deeply rooted in our genes, affecting When it reaches our cerebral cortex, our descendants will instinctively reject the color blue.
In our daily lives, we can hardly see blue food. Even blueberries , its real color is purple. So blue food is actually the fear in human genes!
Scientists said that in addition to the evolutionary gene theory, there is another explanation: the arousal mechanism of the human brain, In the color spectrum , blue is a very special kind, because among the spectrums of different wavelengths, blue is the easiest to wake up. Our brains are . For example, when people use their brains and see blue light , it will directly stimulate our cerebral cortex.
In the same way, when the human brain sees blue food, it will also stimulate the cerebral cortex and release a special inhibitory neurotransmitter through this nerve signal. We become calm and eventually suppress our appetite.
Inhibition is one of the basic neural processes of our brain. When there is inhibition, there is excitement. Inhibition is usually accompanied by the weakening or disappearance of excitement.
According to Pavlov 's advanced neural activity theory, excitation and inhibition often occur alternately, and these two activities can induce each other.
Different colors can awaken our cerebral cortex to varying degrees, allowing our brains to switch between excitement and inhibition. People can make full use of this to practice activities, such as diet, weight loss, etc. in daily life.
Scientists have discovered , the red color not only gives people a very warm feeling, but also stimulates appetite. For example, in a hot pot restaurant, the red background can always give people a vibrant feeling.
When you sit on a red seat and use red tableware, you will obviously find that you are more likely to be hungry. When you see red food, you are more likely to eat three large bowls directly.
Similarly, orange and yellow can also trigger appetite. Many restaurants take advantage of this to decorate their stores, and dessert shops like to use this color the most to attract more diners.
Green decoration often sells "green" products, that is, health foods that maintain our health. When we come to a green store, we will subconsciously think that everything here is healthy, because "safe" foods are usually green. .
But you will find that no restaurant is blue. A restaurant in the United States invented slimming tableware, claiming to help customers lose weight.
This basis comes from Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Laboratory at Cornell University in the United States. He has studied plate color and eating behavior, and finally concluded that: The closer the color of the dish and the plate, the easier it is to eat; On the contrary, the stronger the color contrast between the two, the easier it is to control food intake.
In foreign countries, the plate called Bolognese spaghetti is basically served on a red dinner plate. Because the sauce noodles and the dinner plate are similar in color, it is difficult to know exactly how much is left on the plate, and the customers themselves are not sure how much they have eaten. I eat more without realizing it.
Therefore, some experts suggest that people who want to lose weight can color their food blue, which will help reduce their appetite. However, this method is rarely practiced. This restaurant in the United States chose to directly change the dinner plate to blue because it is too blue. There was very little colored food, and everything looked out of place on the blue plate.
For those who want to lose weight, experts say that blue bowls and plates may be a good idea. Female friends who want to lose weight can actively try it.
- The End -
author | Tommy
editor | No Rain
first psychological writing team | A group of young people who like to look up at the stars
References: Bruk, A., Scholl, S. G., & Bless, H. (2018) . Beautiful mess effect: Self–other differences in evaluation of showing vulnerability. Journal of personality and social psychology, 115(2), 192-205
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