If one particular food just looks better than another, it may be the color that’s drawing you in.
It seems that your brain is hardwired to crave certain foods based on color, with red food getting the red-hot response. At least that’s what one particular survey by the International School For Advanced Studies found. Researchers discovered that when deciding what to eat based on calories, we’re dependent on color code to help seal the deal.
Some suspect that color code
This is something that can be traced back centuries to when people had to hunt for the most nutritious veggies, fruits, and berries growing out in the wild. While, for example, dogs and other animals use their sense of smell, humans depend on the naked eye, guided, in part, by the color of food. Researchers equate that while green foods are generally lower in calories, people automatically view red foods as more nutritious, packed with more protein and calories. It’s probably not all that surprising to suggest that things like lettuce and broccoli are automatically lower in calories, but it turns out the color green may be one of the biggest triggers of all to the human mind. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprising, researchers found a similar result when adding processed foods to the mix.
While the entire idea seems pretty simplistic, researchers say that non-food items don’t share the same allure; meaning the same color code they suspect makes red foods more appealing than green doesn’t hold true for anything else. Still, if you find yourself reaching for a bottle of deep red hot sauce to top your greens tonight, take heart that it may indeed be that you want a boost of flavor, or simply it’s your mind’s way of choosing the color your body needs the most.