Food psychology is the study of the mental processes behind how and why we eat. While we might think of food consumption primarily from a biological perspective, research has shown that our eating habits are significantly influenced by our perception of food as well as various other social and environmental stimuli. Continue reading
Have you recently had a baby? The first year might be hard on parents who are recovering from pregnancy and birth, dealing with sleepless nights and getting to know their newborn. It’s hard to imagine that this particular time period, which your child won’t consciously remember, has such a significant impact on his/her future development — but it does! Are you wondering what you can do to positively shape your child’s future in the first 12 months? Read on. Continue reading
Eating fresh, tasty food can bring a measure of delight and satisfaction to just about anyone’s life. Eating is fun. And given a larger portion of whatever it is that we enjoy eating, we likely expect ourselves to consume more. That’s logical. That’s a no brainer. But how willing would you be to scarf down stale food that is over 2 weeks old? “Not very – that’s disgusting,” you might think. Well, think again. Continue reading
What on earth could be bad about eating low-fat foods? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Food psychologists Brian Wansink and Pierre Chandon (2006) have discovered that foods labeled as “low fat” can lead to increased consumption and contribute significantly to obesity. How does that happen? The researchers point to two major reasons:
In their study, Wansink and Chandon (2006) showed that “all people – particularly those who are overweight – eat more calories of snack food when it is labeled as low fat than when it is labeled as regular.” Food nutrition labels can provide both objective and subjective consumption cues. Objective labels tell us exactly how much of a particular food constitutes a single serving and discreetly packaged items such as a 12 ounce can of soda, make the recommended serving size pretty obvious. Continue reading
