CREMONA – Did you know that mood influences what we choose to eat? What prompts us in certain situations to choose a good fizzy and sweetened drink rather than a healthier fruit juice? Why, if you feel a little down, does a good dessert hearten us more than a healthier apple? Who is curious to know how and why our moods can influence the choice of food to eat, can volunteer to undergo the test for research that the EngageMinds Hub of the Catholic University, directed by Gwendolyn Graffignais conducting at the Santa Monica campus.
To participate as a tester just send your application to [email protected] or call 0372/499181.
«The goal is to try to understand how the mood and emotions we feel influence the evaluations we make of food and therefore the food choices – explains Lorenzo Palamenghi -. The research starts from the assumption that making healthy food choices is essential for health, but that our mood can influence our decisions: in particular, a deflated mood can push towards unregulated eating behaviors, for example through the use of comfort food. This has particular relevance for patients with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, who are asked to avoid the so-called trigger foods, ie those foods that risk triggering or worsening the patient’s symptoms ».
The research is now at the point of analysis of testers without particular intestinal pathologies, then it will be the turn of a sample of subjects with chronic inflammatory diseases of the intestinal system. The various attitudes that lead to the choice of foods, more or less healthy, will then be compared during the processing and analysis of the information collected.
So, having accepted the challenge of being a guinea pig, we find ourselves in front of a computer, the gaze measured through the “eye tracker”technology that allows you to follow the gaze of the participants and make inferences on attentional processes.
«After this recording – explains Palamenghi – we follow a series of questionnaires to investigate how, after a manipulation of the mood, people with different characteristics react to food and choose accordingly. This will allow us to deepen the relationship between food choices, motivation, mood and psychological characteristics of individuals».
The test lasts half an hour and starts with the viewing of a video that aims to condition the mood of the tester, putting him in a situation where the choice of food can somehow compensate for the mood or psychological condition into which he has suddenly found himself catapulted and mostly on an empty stomach. We then move on to the projection on video of some foods, all very colorful and inviting, solid first and then liquid. It ranges from crackers to snacks, from vegetables to a sandwich, from a beer to a fruit juice, from a glass of water to one of Coca Cola.
The observation and attention of the tester are measured, as well as the final choice, with a flick of the mouse click. The roundup of food and drink is followed by two tests, always to be completed online, in which the research attempts to investigate the reasons for the choices and the eating habits of the tester. To compensate for the availability of those who have undergone or will undergo the test the possibility of receiving an Amazon voucher of 5 euros.
“At the moment we are working on the common, healthy citizen, to test and refine the methodology, but we hope to soon pass (thanks to a collaboration with the AMICI association, with which we have already worked in the past) to a sample of patients with disease chronic inflammatory condition of the intestine, for which a healthy diet is much more relevant and the sgarro has possible more serious consequences », concludes the researcher.
The research results will arrive, in all likelihood, within the year.
