Psychological Impressions on Food

9/24/2012
Nerissa Magol
100215010

Hungry? Thinking about food?

Credit: Nerissa Magol

Out of 24hrs in a day, how many times a day do you think of food? It is a hunger/ urge about thinking what your next meal is going to be or is it a negative psychological thought that others think is an undesirable trait in you? For me, when I think about the word food, a delicious chocolate cupcake appears in front of my eyes. What about you, it could be a roast chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies, or a platter of sushi that draws an image in your mind.



Credit: Maggie 

       What does food mean to you? Isn’t food just food? Or is food a fuel for our bodies? When did food become more than just nutrition’s? Doesn't healthy eating mean eating the essential food groups in an enjoyable way to keep a normal, maintained weight? People with healthy eating habits use food for energy, and sometimes as a source of pleasure. They may be motivated by health and beauty, or their desires for weight loss or keeping it maintained, and live a life that replicates Hippocrates' advice "Let food be thy medicine, and medicine shall be thy food." Spoken By an ancient Greek physician.

 

Credit: Nerissa Magol, at Chillis Restaurant.

Psychologically healthy eating means, "eating without meaning."  It is important to remember that what we eat affects how we feel, and how we feel and think affects how and what we eat. Unfortunately in today's world, what and how we eat is influenced by various dynamics, such as the culture we are brought up in, the environment around us, social stresses in our daily lives, and family issues. This causes us to irrationally see food as a coping tool, while the truth is that using food to deal with stress, hopelessness, boredom, anger, or anxiety will only make us feel worse in our future. Many of us have forgotten the meaning of nutritional food intake. Fast food chains are competing with their psychological pricing to “up-size” their “value meals”. Common slogans such as “just $1 for any size”, are seen everywhere around us today.  It’s a way of fooling us into believing that bigger is better, and not only better, but normal since majority of the people are following this daily so why don’t you. Think you can resist the "Buy one, Get a Two Free" offer? You can't, and in fact, you'll probably buy more than you would normally buy. This is all a prank or a myth as some say towards psychologically arrangements in supermarket’s or restaurants that try to confuse our minds.

Everyone day has different views about what is good and what is not good. Chocolates are supposed to be bad; but recent studies have shown, having chocolate in moderate amounts could be beneficial. For example, dark chocolate lowers blood pressure, says Dr. Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany. Having a balanced diet by including all the food groups satisfies our body needs as well as our psychological wants. I personally believe, one should eat for the taste and not just because they have to. Enjoying the first three bites of your cupcake or your roast chicken with mashed potatoes, brings the satisfaction in our minds and on our pallets; which further decides if we want to continue eating for its tastes or for the sake of finishing our food.

Want to end with a small story that I would like to share with my readers, that I heard couple of months ago regarding a seventy-five year old man, who loves having sweet dumplings daily. He eats at least one kilogram of sweet dumplings and does not gain weight. I was wondering how is it possible to not gain weight with a food that contains tons and tons of sugar and cooked in litres and litres of oil. Later, I was told to guess what could be a possible reason for this gentleman not to gain weight by eating something greasy and fattening every day. Finally the answer was revealed that he does not swallow the sweet dumplings he eats daily. He simply, chews the dumplings, enjoys the taste of the dumplings and spits out the substance of the sweet dumplings. He experimented this ideology by himself and found himself not gaining weight. He asked his doctor, and the doctor said, " You are just swallowing the juices of the sweet dumplings, not the actual mass of the product. Therefore, liquids are easy to digest, compared to the mass substances we swallow".

                             So who's up for a weight maintaining food challenge? 

Misleading Labels.

9/24/2012
Nicole Amaral
100257087

Video credit [x] ; Gif Credit: Nicole Amaral

Grocery shopping is one of those things that are done weekly or more than that for some peoples. But have you ever chosen a certain food item over another simply because of what the labels look like? Well, it might just be time to reconsider some choices made. That’s because terms like “fat free”, “trans-fat free” and “all natural” that we usually tend to see in abundance on food labels these days, might not be healthy at all.

Credit: Nicole Amaral

Annoyed? Bothered? Frustrated? Well I kind of am. Not because I’m being deceived by certain products that I thought were good for me but also because these are actually some of the food items that I love to eat! One of my favourite things to snack on during class or throughout the day are granola bars, or Nutri-Grain bars to be more specific. Even though on the box and label it says “more of the whole grain your body needs” and “made with real fruits/ fruit filling” it’s not true. These types of statement are put on labels in order to grab customer’s attention and it’s done this way on purpose. I found this out by reading the nutritional facts that are on the back of the box, which some people don’t tend to read. There are about 13 grams of sugars and 100 milligrams of sodium in every bar, that doesn’t seem as much when written down on paper, but it does add up.

Credit: Nicole Amaral

I am certainly not trying to bash on any food items but this is just an example of why people should definitely check out the nutritional facts and ingredient lists on all the food products they buy. Buying food based on just packaging and labels could potentially be harmful, and in order to cut down on that checking the ingredients and nutritional facts are a great start.  According to a Nielsen Survey and Health.com nearly 59% of consumers have a hard time understanding nutrition labels.

Food labels like this mislead the public into thinking they are getting an organic and healthy product, when in reality they are getting an opposite of what they want.  Miscommunication like this between companies and customers could be harmful not only to the customers’ health, but also towards the company.

There is a common saying “don’t believe everything you see and read” this statement factors into the essence of grocery shopping. Customers buying various food products often get deceived or have the wrong information on what they put into their body on a daily basis.  That’s why miscommunication between what people think they are eating and what they are actually eating isn’t a big surprise. Therefore people should definitely not believe all the labels they read on food products, that is, if they want to have a healthier life.

Related Links: Healthy or Hype? , Theory of Food Labels

What is EMOD?

9/24/2012
Zephyrin Tsoi
100231347

Partially Emotional, Partially Food...This is EMOD.

There are many ways to express ourselves, but how should we do it? Should we speak our minds, gesture our thoughts or taste our emotions?

"shy" -zephyrin tsoi

"vitamins vs calories" -zephyrin tsoi

Food is an essential part of life that gives us energy, happiness, joy, pain, etc. There are multiple ways to utilize food as your communication tool depending on what you're eating, when you're eating and how much you're eating. Sometimes the most common methods of communication, verbal/written/contact, are undesirable to the given situation and the delivery through food may yield the most favorable result. Communication through food can be indirect, calm and casual depending on how it's conveyed by the receiver. You may combine existing communication methods, such as written, and manipulate the food to literally display your hidden emotions by words or by doodling faces.

We already understand that faces express freely how one may feel. Clearly, a frowning face would mean sadness and a grinning face would mean happiness. Just like food, many perspectives are already set in peoples heads. When a girl is sitting in her room eating a tub of ice cream, others will eventually assume that they are depressed. When one orders a salad for their main course, people's minds are set that they are on a diet and attempting to lose weight. The most common setting is when one goes out at night, to a bar or pub, and drinks to the point where they puke, blackout, and can't remember anything that happened that night. But really, what do all these food say for them? Can people determine what message they are trying to send  to each other by looking at what they are eating and drinking?

"3 tier choco cake" - steve (oui, chef)

For instance, alcohol can be used as a way to relieve stress, to lower the levels of consciousness and allow people to speak their minds freely. The effectiveness of utilizing food as a form of
communication just emphasizes the commonly used idiom stating, "a picture is worth a thousand words", as it is able to deliver the message stimulating all five senses. The appearance of the food, the sensations felt with the captivating aroma, the crisp sound of a knife hitting the bacon, the fork plunging into a three tier chocolate mousse cake and finally the savoury taste fills your mouth with joy. Food is a type of nourishing for one's mind and body but it can also reveal to others how you may be feeling or what you may be thinking about depending on your expressions and your food choice.

So the next time you decide to choose what to eat on the menu and you don't want anyone to know how your feeling, remember that what you end up choosing is saying something no matter how hard you try to hide it.