You know that savoring your food helps you appreciate it more, but the latest research suggests that the music you're listening to while you eat may also influence your ability to enjoy it, according to a recent study from the journal Appetite.
For the study, researchers gave participants either chocolate or red peppers to eat and had them listen to four different types of music—jazz, hip-hop, classical, and rock—during four different sessions. Then, researchers had participants rate how much they liked their food. The milk chocolate represented "emotional food," i.e., food people tend to reach for when they need a pick-me-up, and the peppers represented "non-emotional food." So, what happened? The music didn't have a significant impact on the taste of the peppers, but get this: People who ate the chocolates reported liking them more when they were listening to jazz (they liked them the least when they were listening to hip-hop).
Why the jazz/hip-hop difference? The study authors suggest that it may all come down to mindfulness. See, jazz tends to be pretty soothing and peaceful and can put you in a reflective mood. Hip-hop, on the other hand, tends to be more aggressive, so you're more likely to feel on-edge when you put it on. This difference influences your eating habits because when you're reflective and content, you tend to be more mindful than when you're feeling more aggressive—which means you're more likely to appreciate your food and savor the flavor of each bite.
And while the study didn't measure how much of each food the people ate, previous research suggests that when you take the time to really enjoy your food, you end up eating less of it overall. So the moral of the story? If you're going to listen to music during dinner, make sure it's jazz. It could help you slim down, and even if it doesn't, it's still great dinner music!
MORE: Can Eating Chocolate Help You Lose Weight?
0 comments :
Post a Comment