Fall and Food

One of the first questions that generally gets asked about design and eating is if colours on walls, plates, etc., can influence how much we eat. The answer:  surface colours do indeed influence our appetite. 

Looking at warm colours boosts our appetite, while seeing cooler ones has the opposite effect.  Looking at warm colours has positive social repercussions—doing so encourages us to behave in more social ways.  You may need to weigh appetite and social effects against each other to make a colour decision that serves your at-home needs most comprehensively.

How can you use this information?

By colouring the eating spaces in your world with relatively more cool or warm colours.

An advantage of using greens:  seeing shades of green supports creative performance, so if you work in your dining area while you’re not dining there, green can be a good option.  Another green benefit, in a green space, with a creative boost, you may be able to come up with clever ways to cut more calories from your world as well as how to diffuse a family celebration morphing into a family battle, around a tasty but ignored roast.

If you or someone who’ll be eating in your home often seem to lack an appetite – and to all the doubters out there, these people do, in fact, exist – paint the breakfast nook in your kitchen a warm colour, go crazy with the warm shades in other spaces where people will eat.  This means you’ll be selecting colours such as oranges, peaches, and warm beiges for places people will be eating.  .

If you’re not really interested in influencing appetite via colour, make sure that the relative surface areas covered by warmer and cooler colours is relatively equal.

When light is warmer, we’re apt to linger, particularly if other people are present and that can lead to eating more—lingering can, insidiously, lead to “calorie intake creep;” warm light boosts our appetite.  Warmer light creates an atmosphere that’s great for relaxing and mingling, and as a species one of the things that we really enjoy doing together is eating, so it’s no surprise that warmer light, the sort produced by candles or light bulbs labelled “warm” can be paired with eating a little more than planned or intended.

Cooler lights, from light bulbs in packages labelled “cool,” for example, help us concentrate when we’re working and to eat a little less when foods nearby. Lights effects on work can be particularly useful if when you’re not eating in your dining area, you’re doing your job there.

It’s likely that in any room you’ll find that a mix of warm and cool lights work best.  We respond more strongly to warmer lights when they’re in table top or floor lamps or mounted relatively low on walls and to cooler lights when they’re overhead, and positioning your warm and cool light bulbs accordingly is likely to work best for you.

We eat a little more when the light in the space we’re in is a little dimmer, and less and more healthfully when it’s brighter—which makes those candlelight dinners, unfortunately, bad for your waist line.

It is true, fortunately or unfortunately, that we feel motivated to eat what we see.  This works out better for people who like to “decorate” with fruits and vegetables fresh from the farmer’s market, than those who frequent bakeries, at least in regards to healthy eating and cutting calories.

If possible, enter your home in a way that doesn’t lead you through the kitchen and any food that might be visible there, on counters, in glass fronted cabinets, etc.  Similarly, you may want to spend less time in your kitchen just “hanging out” at non-meal times or, at a basic level, avoid buying an open plan home if you’re house shopping if you or someone you live with has significant eating related issues.

Also, remember, the most serious issue is food views.  It’s possible that simply re-arranging furniture can keep food vistas in check.

Adding warm scents to an environment (for example cedarwood) has been linked to consuming fewer calories than smelling cooler smells, such as eucalyptus are present.

Choose the music that you play at dinner parties, or during meals everyday, carefully.  The more we like the soundscape as we eat, the more positive our opinions are of whatever we’re consuming.

Researchers have found that when we’re calmer, because we’re listening to quieter, relaxing music, for example, or in an area that has plants, for instance we have more “mental bandwidth” available to consider our food options and make healthier selections, consume fewer calories, and have a better time as we eat.  Also, we rate eating spaces with plants in them more positively than similar areas without plants.

Interestingly, we also link particular shapes and tastes and the forms of dishes that you serve food from or eat from can influence your perceptions of what you are tasting, according to the research evidence.  We link more angular shapes with bitter and sour tastes as well as sharp tastes (an example: cheddar cheese).  Similarly, curving shapes are associated with sweeter tastes and smooth, creamy textures. Angular shapes/forms are also linked to spiciness.  Want people to think your chili is mind-blowingly spicy?  Serve it from a dish with a spiky, starburst rim.

Design can make it more likely that we eat well—more healthfully, while enjoying the time we spend eating more—another way it can powerfully and positively improve our lives.

After a while (the exact length of this period depends on exactly how much of a couch potato you actually are) you may feel the need to exercise, even though it is Autumn and Winter and smart animals, like bears, spend Autumn preparing to sleep for months and then, once it is Winter hibernating.  The design of your home can help with that also. Read our articles on health here.