40 JUNE 2017
Food & Nutrition
2/ Look Past the Package
People tend to believe that a
product in matte packaging is
healthier than one in a glossy
container, according to Spence.
The nutrition facts are what matter:
always check them when you’re
shopping for food.
3/ Swap Your Dishes
Try eating out of a small bowl
instead of a big plate. The rim of a
plate may fool you into thinking
there’s less food than there really
is, according to Spence. A bowl,
especially filled to the top, gives the
impression of abundance, possibly
leading you to eat less.How Smell Makes You Fat
Back in 2000, in his research on
iced tea for a food company, Spence
made an interesting discovery:
when people opened a bottle of
iced tea, they thought it smelled
evocative. But when they drank
the tea, the flavour was far more
subdued, disappointing them.
Your brain doesn’t like having its
predictions be wrong, he says. This
may be why a fast-food chicken
sandwich smells so good but never
seems to deliver.
He also found one way to fix the
conflict between smell and taste:
adding sugar. That way, the tongue
experiences the level of flavour it
had expected based on scent. For
example, peeling back a package of
Oreos releases such a potent cookie
smell that Nabisco likely had to dial
up the sugar to meet expectations.
1/ Pick Plain
Choose regular, no-fruit-on-
the-bottom yogurt to cut added
sugar. Then add your own berries.
Incorporate something that makes
you chew longer, such as walnuts
or almonds, to help reduce your
overall calorie intake, Spence says.
2/ Watch the Booze
Beer goggles are a thing, but beer
noses? People under the influence of
alcohol tend to eat more calories, the
journal Obesity reports. Alcohol can
sensitise the brain to food aromas,
inciting us to eat when we’re not
hungry and to overeat. Order your
drink with your meal, not before.Spence guided me through a
multi-course meal designed by
Kitchen Theory, which is kind of a
pop-up restaurant-slash-food lab
that incorporates Spence’s findings.
Each course, prepared by chef Jozef
Youssef, was meant to manipulate one
of my senses. Here’s what I learnt.
How Sight Makes You Fat
My first course was entirely white.
Four appetizers sat atop an ivory
platter: a snowy ball, cloud-like
cotton candy, colourless globules
with the consistency of egg yolk,
and a triangular chip with a cuboid
topping. With Spence looking on, I
was told to eat them in order from
sour to salty to bitter to sweet. I
went for a chip. Spence asked why.
I told him the topping looked
like it was pickled, so it might
be sour. Spence suggested that
there could be something else
going on. Sweetness is typically
associated with round shapes
(think chocolate chip cookies
and peanut butter cups). Hard,
angled edges (pickle spears, lemon
wedges) communicate sourness
and bitterness.
But then I bit into the chip. It was
sour, yes, but even after Spence told
me the topping contained hearts of
palm, white onion, lime, and olive
oil, I couldn’t taste any of those.
Spence explained that there’s
truth to the adage “we eat with our
eyes”. When our food loses colour,
our brain loses context.
1/ Shut Off the Neon
Spence’s research suggests
that people are so compelled by
colour that they trick themselves
into tasting what they see. In
an experiment he reviewed, for
example, many tasters deemed a
cherry-flavoured soft drink citrusy
because it had a vibrant orange
colour. So by avoiding processed
foods in any hue not found in nature,
you can cut down on junk such as
sugary cereals, Skittles, and boxed
mac ’n’ cheese.
A FEAST OF THE SENSES
Charles Spence, Ph.D. (above, left),
and Chef Jozef Youssef (above,
right) mind-bend diners’ tastebuds. PHOTOGRAPHS
ANDREW WOFFINDEN