Dining Hall

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Jessica Aletta

For the First time in about a month my friends and I went to Dining Hall to eat at dinner time. We never get to do this because we usually have practice until late at night when dining is closed. While at dining I looked for habits of people just like we discussed in psychology class. I also thought about what i do when I am in dining hall and where i go first and last. There are many different routes to many different stations that people take when in dining hall.

The first thing i go to when i am in dining hall is to get my drink and look at the line for the sandwich station. If it is too long of a line i will not wait to get a sandwich i will move to the salad station and the main station with the main courses but i did not waste my time at the sandwich station because i got my drink when over there. My last option if I don’t find anything is the hot station but that is my last option.

I find my own choices interesting because i try not to waste energy from going to stations that i won’t obtain anything from. I try to get energy back from all the stations i visit. This is why I go to the hot station last because it waste the most energy going there because we never sit by that side of the cafeteria. This goes back to psychology class because we talked about how people do not like to expend more energy than they are going to get back from the food. This is not just for walking around and how far each station is but also how much energy you are going to waste in the sandwich line as well. I noticed many people grabbed something at the station they were at never really walking away form a station empty handed. Many people act the same way in dining hall just as I do.

Social Media

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Ilana Levich

Every single person who has Instagram or Facebook can say that they follow some sort of food related account. Whether it is “NYC Foods,” “FoodPorn,” or any other food related account, those pictures of deliciously looking foods that pop up on our news food are constantly making us crave junk food more and more. Every time I open the Instagram app there is a new picture of chocolate sundae with sprinkles and melted hot fudge followed by a picture of a double bacon cheeseburger with every possibly topping and sauce ever created. Whether you’re hungry or not, seeing that automatically makes you crave it – also referred to as food cues. We never really notice it and realize how much these accounts impact the amount and choice of food. For example, my friend and I were sitting at home the other day trying to decide where we’d like to go eat. We spent about 45 sitting down on the couch scrolling through Instagram seeing if that could expedite the decision making process. However, that probably wasn’t the best idea. As soon as we came across one of these food accounts that displayed a picture of a curly fries tower with melted cheese and bacon bits on it we realized that thats what we wanted. But looking back on the situation I think to myself, is that really what we wanted, or did we just immediately crave it after seeing the picture? It’s really hard to say. Social media has such an incredible impact on the food choices we make today in positive and negative ways. When we see celebrities eat healthy and make nutritional food choices it often makes us want to do the same so we can look and feel as good as they do. However, when we see posts about stuffed nutella french toast and mac n cheese burger we are more inclined to crave that rather than a salad with celery and cucumbers.

Is “Food Porn” Making Us Fat?

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Kathleen Leavey

An example of food porn: a double bacon juicy cheeseburger with fries.

I had come across this blog on the foot network about recent research revealing significant “physiological and neurophysiological changes seen in response to food images.” Food porn is basically self-explanatory. It is essentially the visually pleasing and stimulating images of delicious-looking, usually unhealthy (high sugar desserts or high fat meals) foods. This interesting research describes the brain’s reaction to seeing food porn, and why this may have detrimental side effects.

As we have learned, when seeing images of food we enjoy, parts of our brain associated with hunger light up, thus making us want want to devour these foods. Since most food porn images are unhealthy, looking at food porn is potentially dangerous. While I was reading this blog, there was a slideshow of delicious-looking foods that actually made me want to go out and eat them.

An example of healthier food porn: popularly trending now, chia seed breakfast yogurt and fruit bowls.

The blog I read acknowledges the research about how food porn has the potential to increase eating, which could lead to overeating; however this blog also proposes a new idea. The idea that if individuals see food porn of healthy food, this may make them want to eat the healthy food. This concludes that whatever kind of food the viewer is seeing, that is the kind of food they are going to want to eat.

YouTube: Funny and Harmful

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Lauren Fay

Whether or not you’re aware of it, there is a growing entertainment community that many kids and teenagers are influenced by, and that’s YouTube. YouTube isn’t just funny cat videos and videos of people falling anymore. There are real entertainers called “youtubers” that post videos and have strong fan bases. There are many types of youtubers: beauty gurus like Zoella, comedy vloggers like Danisnotonfire, sketch makers like Smosh, and gamers like Pewdiepie. No matter what category these entertainers fall into, they all participate in challenges. Although not always, these challenges often have to do with food. The cinnamon challenge, miracle berry challenge, tin can challenge, and chicken nugget challenge are all examples of how YouTube can influence viewers to do something harmful involving food.

glozell The Cinnamon Challenge entails pouring cinnamon on a spoon and swallowing it. Seems simple right? Not quite. The cinnamon dries out your mouth making it incredibly difficult to swallow. Coughing, gagging, and vomiting can result. In worse cases the cinnamon is inhaled leading to throat irritation and breathing difficulties that could result in damage to the lung. Sure it’s funny to watch, especially GloZell doing it (pictured right), but kids and teenagers started doing it all because of YouTube. The American Poison Control has received over 100 calls because of this challenge.

Miracle Berry Challenge is a fairly new challenge to YouTube. This challenge is quite berry interesting and it’s obvious why people want to try it. Eating this “miracle berry” can switch your taste buds so that things that you might normally find disgusting taste amazing and vice versa. Phil Lester and Tyler Oakley did just that and showed how strange the berry’s effects really are. We briefly discussed this fruit in a psychology class, but the reading from our textbook certainly makes me want to stay away from it. The author, Logue, says that miraculin, the substance that causes this taste changing effect, is something that she wants to stay away from because it could have heavy consequences. After further research on the berry it seems that the effects are unknown and that further scientific research has to be done.

Joe Sugg (thatcherjoe) and Alfie Deyes (Pointlessblog)

The Tin Can Challenge is like a lottery, except you don’t win anything that great. The point is to buy a bunch of canned foods and take the labels off, so you don’t know what they are. Then put numbers on the bottoms of the cans and put the same numbers on pieces of paper. Put the papers into a bowl and whatever number you pick you have to eat the corresponding can. Some of these cans have delicious foods and others have extremely disgusting foods. It’s the luck of the draw. Many teenagers are doing this challenge with their friends. I’m not afraid to say that I was one of those teenagers. It is an extremely funny game, but I can attest that you will feel very sick after.

Tyler Oakley attempting the Chicken Nugget Challenge

The Chicken Nugget Challenge is the worst of the challenges in my opinion. For this challenge you are to attempt to eat 50 chicken nuggets in 20 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. It doesn’t take a nutritionist to tell you that you shouldn’t eat 50 chicken nuggets in one sitting. My friends also attempted this challenge, but I fortunately sat out for this one. I did watch them do it, however. After discovering that this one challenge would make them consume 2,000-3,000 calories, depending on how many they finish and whether or not they use sauce, I was quite concerned. This means that they could eat more calories in one sitting than they are supposed to in a whole day! The fact that kids and teenagers are influenced to do this is extremely unhealthy!

Clearly we see a modern case of monkey see monkey do. We imitate the people we admire and in many kids and teenagers cases, these people are youtubers. I am a huge fan of some of the youtubers named above and think they are incredibly talented and entertaining. However, I would caution viewers to be aware of the harmful effects of these challenges.

Food Cues

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Olivia Silvestri

Food Cues: Are they real or is it really because we are hungry?

During this weekend I ventured into the city with my friend for brunch. I couldn’t wait to go for brunch because it is my favorite. I love that breakfast food is offered until 4 pm with a few lunch options. When I got to the restaurant I ordered everything I thought would seem delicious. Pancakes, eggs, and French toast were shared among the 2 of us. When we were finished we couldn’t even think of eating more that’s how full we were.

Finally, after deciding to leave the restaurant my friend and I were walking to the train. On our way to the train we were complaining about how much food we consumed. With only about 2 more blocks until we hit the train station we saw a 16 handles (frozen yogurt store). We immediately looked at each other and couldn’t resist. Before we knew it we had filled our cups with 3 different types of frozen yogurt with 5 different toppings.

In my opinion, this is a true example of a food cue. My friend and I were so full walking to the train but once we saw that 16 handle we suddenly felt like we were able to eat it and went right inside we no hesitation. Food cues do impact the reasons we eat no matter if we are full or hungry.

Societal Norms on Overeating and Supersizing

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Ipek Miminoska

On Monday, during our psychology class we watched part 2 of the BBC documentary, The Men Who Made Us Fat. One thing that stuck with me was when the documentary mentioned that chocolate was no longer given on just special occasions. We also tend to overeat nearly everything we are given or have chosen to eat. One of my favorite chocolates are the Ferrero Rocher Hazelnut ones. A few days ago, my parents had come home with a box of them, knowing how much I enjoyed them. It was only after I counted the wrappers that I realized I had eaten about eight of them in one sitting. I overate without even realizing I did. I feel that in our society overeating has become the norm and we don’t realize the consequences until after.

The documentary also mentioned supersizing. This got me thinking about my experience with supersizing. Once in a while, when a movie I’m interested in comes out, I usually want to see it in a theatre. Regardless of whoever I’m with, we always order the same thing. Large popcorn and two drinks. It was after viewing this documentary that I realized how big the drinks really were. Theatre drinks and drinks from any establishment nowadays are huge. I have been so accustomed to seeing those sizes, that when I saw the comparison of how adult sodas used to be only 7 ounces, I was shocked. I immediately thought that it wasn’t enough to sustain me. However, I realized that 7 ounces of soda should be around the amount we should be drinking. One glass of soda is enough. Instead, we choose to drink more than one, when we should be limiting ourselves to live a more nutritious lifestyle.

“The Ironic Effects of Weight Stigma”

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Ipek Miminoska

Last week, while I was looking up research for our reflective tutorial paper, I came across an article. While I ended up not using that specific article fin my research, I found it very interesting. The article can be viewed here. The question asked in the article is if stigmatizing obesity leads to weight loss. What got me interested in the article in the first place was the study done on women who were in college, which was relatable to us. In the study, 93 female college students were researched. The participants were asked to read and discuss an article titled “lose weight or lose your job” which was considered weight stigmatizing and act as the experimental condition or they were asked to read a non-weight stigmatizing article called “quit smoking or lose your job.” This was considered to be the control condition. They were then asked to wait in a room where they can help themselves to a snack.

According to the article, the results of the experiment showed that women who perceived themselves to be above-average weight consumed more calories than those who didn’t believe they weighed more than average. When I read the results, I realized that weight stigma did not lead to obesity. Instead, it made it worse, since those women consumed more calories instead of eating less. Those women who were considered overweight were also recorded to have felt les in control of their diet while the author described the other group to be “those who are not overweight and who have a hard time understanding what it is like to be overweight, stigma feels like it would help strengthen other people’s resolve to eat less because it strengthens their own.” This result leads to weight stigma.

Those who aren’t stigmatized, cannot understood how it feels and instead base their own experience and believe it’s that way for everyone when it isn’t the same at all. In conclusion, weight stigma does not encourage people with above average weight to lose it. Instead, it does the opposite. Those who consider themselves overweight feel much more out of control eating and have an increase in calorie consumption. This led to what my paper was about, which was that both the media and stigmatization can lead to negative effects (health and psychological) on those who consider themselves overweight.

Get More for Four

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Kathleen Leavey

Recently, Wendy’s has released a new special, the “4 for $4.” In this combo customers can get fries, a sandwich, chicken nuggets and a drink all for just $4. Prior to this special, customers, including myself, would only order 2 out of the 4 food options available in this special. Now, since all of these items are available in a package, ordering customers are urged to eat more because it is actually saving them money. Instead of saying, “I would like an order of french fries, chicken nuggets, a bacon cheeseburger, and a soda,” they simply have to say, “I would like the 4 for $4.” This shows that bundling orders promotes obesity because customers are encouraged to consume larger portion sizes. This leads customers to feel less self conscious about the amount of food they are actually receiving while simultaneously promoting sales because more people will order this as a bundle.

I had learned about this special through an advertisement on Facebook. Over 73,000 people “liked” it and over 8,000 shared it to their profiles. This is an effective strategy used by Wendy’s because they are targeting their customers through social media which promotes hunger and salivation by seeing pictures and videos of this food. This is promoting an obesogenic environment because in the 21st century, advertisements are everywhere. Now, since this is on Facebook; the advertisement can be “shared” to other people who don’t even follow Wendy’s, which is how I stumbled upon this advertisement.

This meal is also very portable which makes it easy to eat in non-traditional eating environments. Drive-Thru’s have created a shift in the social norm, making it acceptable for people to have full meals in their cars, or just snack on fries while driving. Companies are aware that people are more likely to overeat when the super sizing option is available, but they use this regardless to increase their sales.

Indecisive Diners

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Ilana Levich

When going out to eat, we never really realize how much other people have an impact on what we decide to eat and order at the restaurant. We often don’t even notice ourselves looking around and gazing at other peoples plates trying to see if what they’re eating will influence our decision.

This past weekend, I visited Boston with one of my closest friends. During our visit, we decided to go to a restaurant called Cafeteria. As soon as we sat down my friend started to stare at other peoples tables while simultaneously trying to read the menu. We sat there for approximately 15 minutes rereading the menu trying to come to a conclusion on what to order. After about the third time the waiter came over and asked if we were ready, we figured it was time to make a decision. However, our conclusion was in fact based on the table sitting next to us. We saw them order a spinach artichoke dip that looked delicious so we ended up ordering the same thing. I wouldn’t say that coming into the restaurant we thought to ourselves “lets order the spinach artichoke,” however seeing the table next to us indulge in such a deliciously looking meal made us crave it more than we thought we did.

This just shows that as much as we don’t acknowledge the fact that other peoples choices influence ours, they really do and to a high extent – even at places such as grocery stores. When we walk down the aisle and see someone pick up a box of cereal, we automatically start to look and walk in that direction. We may not pick up the same box as they did, however we are more inclined to look into that category of foods because we saw someone else do it. This sort of behavior may be considered a good and bad thing depending on how you look at it. If you are influenced by someone who makes nutritional food choices then that would be beneficial for you; however, if you follow someone who usually picks up high carb, high sugar, and high fat foods then you should try and change that behavior. It really is peculiar why other peoples choices have such a huge influence on our own.

Team Dinner

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Julia McClure

This past Tuesday my basketball team and I attended a team dinner hosted by my coach. We all decided at practice what we were going to eat and we decided on tacos. I think part of the reason why my team decided on this meal was so they can repeat “Taco Tuesday” a million times, but that’s just my opinion. We scheduled this meal for after our long practice; our first practice back after the break to get our minds right.

As I entered her house an array of aromas already filled the air. She had cheeses and meats set out as an appetizer and all the options laid out on her counter for the tacos. These included cheese, tortilla shells, guacamole, sour cream, tomatoes, brown rice, and a few other options. One of those few other options was ground turkey. I normally do not eat any meat other than chicken and we could not serve beef due to my restrictions. I was already prepared to eat the chicken and this choice of ground turkey threw me for a loop. Once I heard what we were eating I was unsure what to do, but I guess the food cues took over.

The array of scents that filled the room made me feel more and more hungry and once I saw everyone eating I could not resist. Like I said I was a little hesitant at first, but because of all the influential characteristics around me I chose to eat and enjoyed every bite of it.

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Category Archives: Food Psychology