We all have them. Rituals we do before eating, though most of us don't think of them that way.
You may be the type of person who always eats chips in a bowl because they're just not the same out of the packet. Or you might only drink peppermint tea from your favourite striped mug because it tastes better that way.
Vohs was so intrigued by her own behaviour, she went on to lead a study about food rituals and how they affect perception of taste. The first experiment in the study, published in Psychological Science, involved 52 participants. They were divided into two groups and instructed to either eat a chocolate bar or perform a short ritual before digging in.
The "ritual" group was asked to break the chocolate bar in half before unwrapping one side and eating that part only. Next, they were told to unwrap the second half and eat that.
Tellingly, those who performed these instructions said they enjoyed the chocolate more and were willing to pay more for it than those who simply ate the bar.
Those who did the same movements beforehand enjoyed their carrots most.
In the final two studies, Vohs and colleagues showed that personal involvement in the ritual is paramount — watching someone else methodically mix lemonade doesn’t make it taste any better. Additionally, they found that by engaging in small rituals before eating, it’s possible we pay more attention to our food, which makes us more personally involved in the experience.
This mindfulness may also help us develop more healthy eating behaviours, the researchers suggest. Rituals may also help in portion control, something the University of Minnesota researchers did not address in their experiments. In a small randomized controlled trial at the University of Texas in Austin, researchers found that teaching restaurant diners to focus on awareness of hunger and taste, along with other strategies, was effective at promoting weight management. When you savor food you enjoy it more, and sometimes you eat less.
Food rituals are an important part of cultures around the world, whether it’s singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles before eating cake or blessing food before a meal.
In China, many people slurp rather than bite their noodles, as breaking them is said to shorten one’s life. Champagne has become the traditional beverage for celebratory toasts and breaking the wishbone of a roast turkey or chicken is believed to bring good luck.
However most of the rituals are highly individual; it's a way of making the food our own. So it's not surprising that it helps us enjoy it more. It situates us in the moment, slows the process and helps us become more mindful of what we're doing even with positive implications on diet.
It's also no coincidence that many of the foods we
associate with rituals – such as biting the bottom of a Cornetto first,
then racing to finish the ice-cream before it becomes a dripping, oozy
mess – are treats or snacks. They're almost always sweet and part of our childhoods. It was a way of savouring the treat but it's also a sign that we want to
interact with our food more than merely eating it. Eating is a really
sensorial experience. We see the shapes, hear the sounds, notice the
form food takes, and find ways of engaging with those.The researchers believe that applying rituals could also help us enhance other areas of our life, such as exercise and relationships. They suggest that rituals may serve as a covert means to get people to do a little more of what makes life worth living.
If you find yourself treating food as fuel and not as an enjoyable experience, consider creating some food rituals to make mealtimes more satisfying:
- set the table
- chew slowly and eat mindfully – focus on the flavours and engage each of your senses
- turn off the TV, computer and other distractions during mealtimes.
Sources: http://www1.umn.edu/, http://www.stuff.co.nz/, http://www.comvita.co.nz/, http://www.goodfood.com.au/, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com