Something we don’t tend to put much thought into when cooking our meals at home is the way in which we are going to present/plate our food. We usually just grab a plate, throw the food on, eat it and move on with our lives. The crazy thing is, the way that we present our food can actually make a difference in the benefits that we get from our food. I know you’re probably thinking that makes absolutely no sense, but keep reading and see just how this can affect us.
Vision Drives Our Appetite
This might not come as much of a surprise for most of you. Usually, when we see something that looks good, we tend to become hungry and crave that food. The reasoning for this is, as humans, we are wired to have our appetite driven by our vision due to our “lack of smell”. Really what this means is back when we had to actually hunt for our food, we would see things way before we could actually smell them. Due to this, we relied heavily on our vision to be able to eat. Because of this, we tend to move more in the direction of foods that look more appealing. This is why restaurants and fast food places put artificial colors in their foods and entice us more. There was even a recent study that had one group served with food on a white plate, one group served food on a red plate, and a third group served food on a black plate. What was found from this study is that the groups that had food on the red and black plates ate more food and reported greater satiety than those who ate off of the white plates. The reasoning for this was that the colored plates created more contrast with the food, which in turn made it more appealing and appetizing than when it was on the white plate.
Power of Our Plate Arrangement
One of the hardest parts about trying to eat healthier isn’t necessarily always how the foods taste, but sometimes more of the fact that the food simply doesn’t look as appealing. This is where how we present the food on our plate comes into play. The association between the flavor and food in our minds gives us a greater chance of creating better habits and actually sticking with those healthier food choices. Our mouth is placed near our brain for a reason and is closely associated with the neural processes that happen when we eat food. What we eat and what it looks like determines how our body and mind will react and absorb it.
How to Make Food More Appealing
Making our food more appealing doesn’t have to be a very complicated process. All it takes is adding a couple of different items to our plate to help add some color. One way in which we can do this is by adding additional elements.. Some examples of additional elements that we can add to our plate include items such as nuts, seeds, and fresh or dried fruit and berries. Adding greens is another option that can easily be done by adding fresh herbs such as parsley, and we can also add more color to our plate by adding different vegetables or fruits to our plate. We can also add different shapes to our plate to make it more appealing visually. To create shapes on our plate this doesn’t mean you have to cut food into stars or anything like that! It simply means just arranging your plate in a neat manner and not just throwing it all on there in one big heap. A final way to make your plate more appealing is just to dress it. This can be something as simple as adding a sauce to your plate.
As you can see, just by making some simple changes to how we arrange our plate before we eat it can make a difference in how we see that food. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, but small changes can help you go a long way with your diet! Now it’s time to go and get creative with your food!
Wanting to get started on the road towards a healthier lifestyle, but not sure how to get started? Schedule a meeting to talk to one of our coaches today!
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