Why do we like colorful foods? - The Evolutionary Psychology of Food Choice
HISTORY OF HUMAN EATING AS A FOOTBALL FIELD
For most of history, humans survived on whole foods they could hunt or gather from nature.
In other words, our bodies have evolved to thrive on whole, natural foods.
Highly-processed modern foods are "new" and foreign to our physiology.
GUIDED BY COLOR
Our brains are wired to eat bright, colorful foods (because that usually indicates nutrient content).
Food manufacturers exploit this instinct by using food coloring and bright packaging to make fake
foods more appealing.
LOW-HANGING FRUIT
We crave sweets and carbs because our brains are wired to seek out easy energy from sugar (in nature, that means ripe fruit or honey).
We do not have any mechanism to put the brakes on this craving, which is why it is so easy to overeat sugar when it is widely available in our modern world.
HYPERPALATABLE
"Hyper-" means excessive and "palatable" means tasty. You got it, hyperpalateable foods are extremely appealing—to the point of overriding our body's satiety mechanisms.
They activate the same areas of the brain as addictive drugs like cocaine.
CRAVINGS
Think of cravings as your body's cries for nutrients.
The exception is cravings for sugar and hyperpalatable foods, which hijack reward pathways in your brain.
Cravings for protein, red meat, seafood, healthy fat, vegetables, and even salt are reliable cues to respond to.
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References
Wolf, R. (2019). Wired to Eat. Random House US.Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (2019). Intuitive Eating. Retrieved from https://www.intuitiveeating.org.
NTA Student Guide. (2019). Nutritional Therapy Association.Center for Nutritional Pyschology. Retrieved from https://www.nutritional-psychology.org/research-studies/
Hazzard, V. M., Telke, S. E., Simone, M., Anderson, L. M., Larson, N. I., & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2021). Intuitive eating longitudinally predicts better psychological health and lower use of disordered eating behaviors: findings from EAT 2010-2018. Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 26(1), 287–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-00852-4
Brewer, J. A., Ruf, A., Beccia, A. L., Essien, G. I., Finn, L. M., van Lutterveld, R., & Mason, A. E. (2018). Can Mindfulness Address Maladaptive Eating Behaviors? Why Traditional Diet Plans Fail and How New Mechanistic Insights May Lead to Novel Interventions. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1418. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01418
Fuentes Artiles, R., Staub, K., Aldakak, L., Eppenberger, P., Rühli, F., & Bender, N. (2019). Mindful eating and common diet programs lower body weight similarly: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 20(11), 1619–1627. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12918