the psychology of food presentation

Do you ever wonder why Gordon Ramsay loses his shi* when food is presented poorly? (Is Gordon Ramsay relevant anymore? I tend to be a little behind on these things.) I had never thought of the concept of plating until I watched shows like Kitchen Nightmares and MasterChef. There are actually psychology courses that focus on food presentation and consider how our brain responds to food. When food is presented in an appealing way, we are likely to want to eat it more. In an effort to get us to eat fruit instead of dessert, I've been trying to keep lots of fruit in the house and I've been attempting to make it easy to eat. I feel like half the time, when I'm hungry, I go for junk food because it is just easier to shove in my mouth. 

This is the true story... of two married people...who stopped baking every day...who started to grocery shop together...to find out what happens... when they stop eating processed dessert...and start eating fruit... 

Since you had to see horrible camera photos yesterday, I am going to start with some beautiful shots of fruit from Pinterest and around the web before I show you some of the tricks we use in our house.

via Pinterest

Do you ever go on Pinterest and start looking at desserts for an hour? It starts with a simple hunt for a recipe and then I see something unrelated and before I know it, I have been looking at food porn for an hour and feel like if I don't have a brownie cheesecake in the next five minutes, I might seriously lose it.

via Kitchen Daily

I figured if looking at endless pictures of baked goods can make me crave them so bad, maybe the same would happen for fruit. I spent fifteen minutes last night looking at beautiful pictures of fruit.

via F*yeahmyhealth

I can't see myself ever having the patience to do this but it
does look pretty! via Bakers Royale

I could eat this all night long. via Pinterest

After seeing all those, do you want to jump off the computer and rub fruit all over your face? Well, thats foolish. You should eat it, not rub it all over your face. On to my less glamorous pictures below. And a story that will raise your spirits and give you hope. (Actually just a story about how I ate fruit last night).

If we have fruit like papaya or kiwi, I just cut it up while I'm making
myself a cup of tea and in minutes dessert is ready for that night.

Feraz and I went for a nice long walk over the Key Bridge last night. The weather was just too good to pass up. I skipped dessert at home because I wanted to get an ice cream while we were out. 

When we get grapes, I take them off the stem and give them a
quick wash so I can grab a handful whenever I want.

But as we were walking I felt so good that I didn't want to put anything unhealthy in my body. I decided that if I still wanted ice cream I would have it at home at the end of the walk.

I can eat a whole bowl of carrots in a sitting so I put some in a bowl
so I don't wake up looking like an oompa loompa the next day.

And by the time I got back, I really, really wanted ice cream! I came in the house and walked right towards the kitchen but before I got there I saw the basket of clementines above. Without even thinking, I just grabbed three and found myself back on the sofa before I could say Breyers. 

I've noticed that taking a few clementines to work had really reduced my
sugar cravings and keeps me from having to do an emergency run
to the vending machines. (Most days).

Miracles happen every day folks.