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 WOFFINDENhttp://www.mens-health.com.my 413/ Lose the Idea of Scent
In 2015, researchers studied a
marketing tactic called “smellizing”- that is, encouraging people to
think about a product’s smell. Doing
this heightened salivation rates
when people looked at a picture
of the product. If you think you’re
being smell-teased, ask yourself:
“Am I really hungry, or are other
forces at work?”
How Sound Makes You Fat
My all-white appetiser led into a
course of crisp seaweed spaghetti.
The servers gave me a pair of
headphones that emitted the sound
of people chewing. The effect was
amazing: the pasta seemed crunchier.
Spence says this explains what
happens when people pair popcorn
and a movie, or potato chips and
TV. When the loud sounds of
your environment match the
crunchiness happening inside your
mouth, that’s harmony. But that
harmony is also what can cause you
to snack mindlessly.
1/ Focus on Chewing
Try eating a crisp, fresh salad
without distractions. The simple
sound of chewing will intensify
your satisfaction.
2/ Tune Your Fork
Fast-food joints play upbeat
music for a reason. People tend to
synchronise their chewing to the
beat, Spence says. Here’s yet another
reason to cook at home: playing
slower-paced music can help you
chew slower and eat less overall. Try
some Leon Bridges or Chet Baker.How Touch Makes You Fat
One of the night’s final courses
involved whiskey poured into two
glasses. The first glass was thick and
wide-rimmed with parallel lines up
the sides. The second was smaller
and lighter with a wide bowl that
tapered at the rim. We took a drink
from each. “Are they the same or
different?” Youssef asked.
My sip from the heavier glass
tasted more alcoholic and more
pungent. According to Spence,
heavy weight conveys bitternessand masculinity. The whiskey from
the smaller glass tasted sweeter and
more intense, as if its flavors were
more concentrated. Turns out, both
drinks were Chivas 12.
In a similar experiment, people
were served yogurt in two bowls
that looked the same but differed
in weight. They were asked to hold
each bowl while deciding which
yogurt might keep them fuller. The
heaviest bowl rated higher. The
brain associates heft with tastiness.
The inverse may also hold true:
when your fast food arrives in
lightweight paper, you’re being led
to lower your expectations.
1/ Buy Heavy Cutlery
Using a heftier knife and fork hasbeen shown to make people rate
food as higher in quality than, say,
a meal that’s served with plastic
utensils.
2/ Cup Your Meal
Having oatmeal? Hold the bowl in
your hands when you eat. Feeling
the weight has been shown to
make you feel fuller faster, since
you attribute the heavy feeling to
a richer meal.3/ Eat Slow Food
In a Singaporean study, people
ate six times more quickly when
their food was the “fast” variety
(like a smoothie) than when it
was “slow” (as in something that’s
bitten and chewed). What’s more,these fast-food eaters ingested 10
to 30 percent more calories than
the slow-food eaters, though both
groups tended to feel equally full.After the meal, Spence said
something that stuck with me:
“If I had to rank the senses in order
of importance for eating, I’d choose
sight and smell as most important,”
he said. “Then sound and touch.
Last is taste.”
Knowing the different ways
restaurants and food producers
manipulate your senses is your
first step toward smarter eating.
But it’s in leveraging gastrophysics
that you start to tip the scale to your
advantage.Why is popcorn so perfect with a movie?
When the loud sounds of your environment
match the crunchiness happening inside
your mouth, that’s harmony.
Eating fewer calories
might be as simple
as holding the bowl
as you chow downPHOTOGRAPHMAURIZIO DI IORIO