Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Color as an Appetite Suppressant: Blue Turns to Blech

Color really matters?

The Amateur Gourmet is hosting an event for Blue Man Group concert tickets, arising from his reading of an article he wandered onto on the net, talking about blue being the least appetizing food color because it isn't found in nature often.  Interesting concept.  It particularly jumped out at me when I followed his link that the article said it's like a color appetite suppressant. In my quest for health and seeing the numbers drop on the scale this year, that intrigued me. The article, Color and Food Matters, says basically if you want to eat less, buy blue plates.  Hmmm...I've actually seen blue dishes, not a lot, granted, but I have seen them and own one serving plate in bright vivid blue.  I was curious and decided to run some experiments of my own:

First I decided to test the blue plate special theory (bad pun) and served a really naughty non-diet lunch of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and a Coke (as in cola) on a blue plate and in a blue glass on top of a blue and white placemat.  Did it make me eat or drink less?  Wish I could say yes but it didn't.  I thought the orange color of the mac & cheese was actually pretty on top of all that blue and the only thing I wished for in the blue glass was that it was a martini instead of soda. So I'd call that part of my personal little experiment a bust but maybe it would be different if you ate on them every day.

On to step two of the experiment: blue food.  I didn't put tons of thought into what food I should dye blue, I just thought of a couple of quick things that were handy and that would work into our dinner tonight of oven-baked fried chicken and homemade bread. I decided on using  a  Martha White strawberry muffin mix that I had originally bought as an easy food for the nieces to make some weekend when they were staying over.  Quick, easy, cheap...sounds like blue material (another bad pun) to me!  The only thing that worried me was the fact that they were berry flavored.  I don't have kids myself but because of keeping the nieces and nephew so much over the years, I don't blink much anymore when it comes to blue raspberry popsicles, blue raspberry yogurt, blue raspberry bottled or pouched kids' drinks.  So I was initially afraid that blue strawberry muffins wouldn't seem that weird. 

My second food choice was deviled eggs. Again, I debated the eggs because we've all eaten blue hard boiled eggs on Easter, but how often do we dye the yolks an odd color, even when we're doing the whole Green Eggs & Ham thing for pre-schoolers?

At first, the colors made me laugh, the blue of the muffins with the red strawberry bits didn't bother me too much. All they did was make me wonder what Steve from Blue's Clues is doing now in his career....

But then when I added the bright blue glaze....it made my stomach turn a little and for the first time I can remember in quite a while,  I didn't immediately dive into the baked goods on the table.  They smelled good but the sight really wasn't all that appetizing.  I was surprised.

I moved on to the eggs and quickly put those together. Once again, the outside of the eggs being blue didn't bother me all that much because it's not completely unfamiliar:

But as soon as I started stirring the blue into the yolks with the mayo and the yolks turned into an icky green...I couldn't tell which I liked less, the blue glaze on the muffins or the icky green of the egg filling.

As if that wasn't bad enough, then I loaded them all "prettily", so to speak, onto that same bright blue plate:

They now all look like either a science experiment or some weird Halloween food.  Next year at your Halloween party, if you want to gross kids out, skip the spaghetti noodles as brains thing, just make all the food bright blue and green and serve it on blue platters. It's like a optic punishment.  Shudder.

By the way, neither one of us touched either the eggs for dinner nor the muffins after dinner. I hate to waste food but I need to just throw it all away. It's that gross.

So the upshot is, while I thought the blue wouldn't really bother me, it did. The blue plate and glass were no big deal or I think Pfaltzgraff would have figured that one out decades ago, but the blue food was disgusting.  What really surprised me was realizing that if I'd dyed all of those foods Barbie pink or Canary yellow, it wouldn't have grossed me out nearly as much as the blue did. I think there is something to that theory, although I'm not willing to dye all my foods sky blue just to make myself eat less.  Maybe. Check back with me as we get closer to summer clothes season.  All my posts might be about blue food I haven't eaten by then.

Be sure to check in with the Amateur Gourmet this week to see the round up of all the "blue food" themed entries.  I took mine quite literally to test the theory behind the article, but let's see what everyone else did with it.

Comments

[sher]

Oh yeah, the blue plate theory is bogus. I think the mac & cheese looks fabulous on it. But the muffins and eggs--gross!!!! Raccoons might eat them!!! :):)

[Glenna]

I agree! The blue plates don't borth me at all and I've drank out of blue glasses a millions times so that's no big deal but the blue food is definitely Blue's Clues kids' time.

[ann]

oh. my. GAWD! I LOVE the blue eggs!!! that so doesn't work for me on that dish. I love eggs, especially hard boiled or pickled, the weirder the color the better. the blue color just makes me think they're really, really! special pickled beet eggs. blue food? so busted ;-)

[girlie]

An interesting post! Getting to play with your food like that sounds like a whole bunch of fun.

You have also succeeded in making me miss Kraft mac & cheese even more... we can get it here, but it costs!

[Glenna]

Ann--LOVE your enthusiasm! Gene did eventually eat the eggs and he said he liked the blue too. I don't mind the dyeing part but I don't think I personally can stomach dyeing the yolks part again. They're weird! LOL!

Girlie--It was fun. I admit it. Something different to say the least. What's your address? We'll mail Kraft products to you! I prefer homemade mac & cheese but, come on, once in a while you have to feed the kid in you. :-)

[Auntie Miranda]

Yeah, the blue eggs really turned me off. But I don't think I'd eat less, I just eat something ELSE. As for the Kraft Mac & Cheese - I heard Wolfgang Puck say one time that it was his KIDS favorite dish. "Oh, Dad, don't make us eat those nasty lobster and artichoke pizzas. Give us Kraft Macaroni and Cheese." My mother likes to mix peas and corn with hers. And eat it with cornbread.

[girlie]

Glenna, what a kind offer! If I wasn't heading back to the States in just a few months, I would totally take you up on it - but I think it would end up being more expensive to box and ship it over here than it would be to just buy at the markup rate! Still, though, that's really thoughtful of you.

[Glenna]

I thought about both of those. Don't you guys only have 3 more months? It would probably take a month to get anything to you. And it would be expensive. you're right. I recently mailed a very light package internationally and it cost in postage as the pajama pants inside did. Hey, and that was only to Canada! Oh well. You'll be home soon with lots of memories and you can eat all the stuff you've missed here while missing all the stuff you won't be able to get anymore from Italy. :-)

[Joe Morgan]

Great read above.

I'm currently doing a project on the colour blue, investigating its effects as an appetite surpresser.

Would cooking pasta work with a blue dye? Suggustions people?

[Glenna]

Joe--thanks! What kind of project and how in depth. I think the pasta water dye is interesting. We're used to eating red and green pasta but blue would be very strange to the eye...

[Joe Morgan]

Basically we have to explore a certain aspect/angle/characteristic of a chosen colour. Its only a week-long project, so nothing too in depth. I found your blog, and was instantly hooked on the idea of food colourings.

I did some experimenting today with, making a very wierd looking pasta carbonara dish; Bright blue! Tested it out on my flat mates. Half of them wouldn't even try it. Needless to say it tasted alright, bar the resulting blue tongue!

I also did some rice samples, and tried soaking a banana and an orange to little effect. It worked better with them peeled slighty.

[Glenna]

Sounds very cool! Let me know what you come up with and if you post all of this on the web. I'm really interested. You said the fruit didn't work. Remember the old celery trick when we were kids? That would definitely work! I'm trying to think of any other veggies that are as porous that would work the same. Bok Choy, maybe. That would make for funky blue stir fry. Wonder if you could soak beet greens and turn the stems purple? Or any of the other greens MIGHT work, but it might be hard to get a true blue against all of the chlorophyl... Keep us posted!

[anabelle]

well for psychology i have to test about colors and appetite and i made green eggs with green food coloring. i took them to school and like 1 or 2 people tried them. they looked really disgusting but not as much as the blue muffins!yuck!

[glenna]

Isn't that wild? There are some foods you can color and people don't mind, like desserts, but not savory things. It looks too unnatural.

[weight loss pills]

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[phentermine]

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[diets review]

Sounds very cool! Let me know what else you come up with and if you post all of this on the web. I'm really interested.

[Glenna Muse]

Thanks you for the great comments

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