Recent research in the US revealed how emotions influence the way we eat. For example, a happy person is more likely to choose to eat a bunch of grapes whereas a sad person will probably choose chocolate.
But the most interesting thing is that even sad people can be led to eating healthy food if they are made to think about something else. Just thinking about what makes us happy leads to a 77% increase in healthy food consumption! Good to know for all green grocers!
The study
Researchers asked themselves why this happens. The reason has to do both with the way people react to their emotions and with time perspective. Sad people tend to focus on the "here and now" and therefore see only the sensory characteristics of food, without posing the question of whether it is healthy or nutritious. At the same time, when someone is happy there is a wider perspective and the focus is on the conceptual aspect of food.
In four different experiments, researchers analysed a total of 787 people: all tests showed how we tend to evaluate self-indulgent food (sweets or similar) more positively after reading sad stories, whereas happier subjects tend to prefer healthy food even though they were older.
Could it be that the secret to selling more fruit and vegetables is the capability of making people smile?