FOOD..also needs to look GOOD.

We have been doing a lot of papers in 135 lately (hahahaha) and most of its bulk is the RRL. The papers demand us to be extra creative in writing (which is very challenging but fun), and aside from this we also have to read lots and lots (and lots) of journal articles. It’s time consuming but the good thing is, I now feel extra smarter than before. I could amuse my roommates by firing various trivia about Human Perception…(thanks to Goldstein, Sir Diwa and of course the long RRLs) and make them think that psychologists are really cool, which of course, is true.

Recently, I have come across an article from Time (Magazinehttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1666274,00.html). It is entitled Taste Test, and is written by Joel Stein in 2007. It is about a doctor named Brian Wansink from the University of Cornell in New York. Dr. Wansink, base on the article, has been and is conducting wacky and cool experiments on perception and food, and their psychological implications. Many of his experiments yielded interesting results such as we tend to eat more and more M&Ms if they are presented in more colors and that we tend to consume more food when our tables have flowers.

In Jane Black’s article (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/7045930.html) a problem in fruit consumption in school cafeterias in New York was solved by Dr. Wansink. They thought that fruit price should be lowered so that kids can afford them. Brilliant Dr. Wansink, saw that the problem is not the price, it’s the presentation!! “ If fruit looks good, kids will choose it”. He put fruits in a rack and added lighting, and voila! the sales increased by 54% by the end of the second week.. (applause!!!!!clap*clap*clap*)

Because of this simple solution, low-cost and flexible, it caught lots of attentions from the higher-ups such as White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Such researches are born out from an emerging branch of psychology, BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS, a collaboration of psychologists and economists. “Behavioral economics combines the behavioral models of psychology with the decision models of economics to help highlight how biases in perception, memory, or thought processes may influence purchasing decisions” (Just and Wansink, 2009).

They have made innovations in increasing consumption of healthier foods and taking less of the not nutritious ones. Such innovations are “Moving the Fruit”, redesigning smarter cafeterias, and salad sales. (http://www.choicesmagazine.org/magazine/article.php?article=87)

Perception of vegetables and fruits as well as the room arrangement has widely affected the increase of nutritious food consumption!

These studies and experiments have been very helpful in improving children’s health and have solved economic disputes in different institutions (e.g. the schools, the government and children’s families).

The results being very innovative may not, however, be applied in our school canteens in the Philippines. We are facing many problems in children’s nutrition but this is not the priority of the Philippine government. We, the schools and the government, would prefer to spend our funds building and fixing classrooms rather than redesigning our canteens. Although this is true, maybe someday Dr. Walsink’s researches will be implemented in our country when we have solved our primary problems. Let’s cross our fingers to that! Wink*wink*.