If you want to thoroughly enjoy your meal, eat it sitting down. This, from researchers at the University of South Florida.

Their study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, found that food doesn’t taste as good when we’re standing up. They came to this conclusion after having 350 participants taste test a savory food and a sweet food.

First, participants rated the tastiness of a standard pita chip. Those who ate it standing up gave it a lower score than those who ate it while sitting in a padded chair. Next, participants rated the tastiness of fresh-baked brownies. Again, those who were standing gave the brownies a lower score than those who sampled the brownies while sitting.

Researchers hypothesize that food doesn’t taste as good when we eat it standing up because standing prompts more physical stress than sitting. Physical stress that may weaken our taste buds.

Source:

Biswas, D., Szocs, C., Abell, A. (2019, May 11). Extending the Boundaries of Sensory Marketing and Examining the Sixth Sensory System: Effects of Vestibular Sensations for Sitting versus Standing Postures on Food Taste Perception. Journal of Consumer Research. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/jcr/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jcr/ucz018/5488173?redirectedFrom=fulltext

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Taylor Bennett

Taylor Bennett

Taylor Bennett is the Content Development Manager at Thriveworks. She devotes herself to distributing important information about mental health and wellbeing, writing mental health news and self-improvement tips daily. Taylor received her bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism, with minors in professional writing and leadership from Virginia Tech. She is a co-author of Leaving Depression Behind: An Interactive, Choose Your Path Book and has published content on Thought Catalog, Odyssey, and The Traveling Parent.

Check out “Leaving Depression Behind: An Interactive, Choose Your Path Book” written by AJ Centore and Taylor Bennett."

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