Seven ways to trick yourself into eating better

We might believe we are in control of what we choose to eat, but our senses are constantly manipulating what we buy and how much we consume. Here's how to turn them to your advantage.

You might not realise it, but you can taste with your ears. Just think about the sizzling of a steak or the popping of a soft drink can – do they set your taste buds tingling already? And how about the music playing the last time you at a meal at a restaurant. Did you notice anything about how it affected your enjoyment of the food?

"We all think we taste in our mouth. That's where, it seems, the flavour is coming from, but all the other senses are involved," says Charles Spence, a psychologist of food sciences at the University of Oxford in the UK.

In fact, before we even taste anything, our brains are making assumptions about food, from how it looks, sounds, feels or smells. This often happens without us even being aware. But the flood of information from our eyes, ears, fingers and nose plays a crucial role in not just how much we enjoy food, but also how much we end up eating too. 

Humans are far from being rational eaters – sensory cues can easily influence our choices. But research increasingly shows that we can use this understanding to hack our senses, nudging us to eat healthier in the process. I've been speaking to researchers to find out how.

Beware of bright packaging

When we shop, for example, our eyes play a huge role in the choices we make. The colour of a package, a brand logo and even how glossy the packaging is primes our brain for what to expect about the food inside.

And when food stands out visually, it is more appealing to us. One study found that participants selected photographs of healthy food significantly more often when the colours were boosted, even when an unhealthy option was right next to it. This taps into a concept known as "salience bias", meaning our attention is drawn to items that are the most eye catching.

We also gauge the health properties of food depending on the colour of the packing, says Betina Piqueras-Fiszman, an associate professor of marketing and consumer behaviour at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Brown, green and white products tend to be considered as more healthy whereas red, yellow and purple, or even "shiny" objects tend to be more associated with indulgent ingredients, she says.

One way of hacking this bias at home, says Spence, is to store biscuits and other sweet treats that come in brightly coloured packaging in an opaque jar. This can help to shield you from the colourful packaging cues that might trigger your desire for an unhealthy, unplanned snack.

Look up, down and avoid checkout temptation

Where food items are placed on the shelf is worth paying attention to – we all tend to take shortcuts and prefer items that are in closer proximity or directly in our eyeline. This is known as the "principle of least effort" and can be exploited by retailers to influence the food we buy.

Supermarkets tend place tempting products near the checkouts and more expensive products at eye level, which can cause us buy and consume products we hadn't intended........

© BBC