Regardless of how late I am running or how little money is at my disposal, passing an IKEA without a quick run-through is, in my opinion, a sin. Of course, a “quick run-through” at IKEA is about as oxymoronic as leaving IKEA empty handed. Without further explanation, this is how I wound up with blue plates I don’t need and how the subject of colors and their affect on appetite arose in my house.
I was pointed to an article http://www.colormatters.com/appmatters.html claiming that the color blue is the least appetizing of all colors. The general belief is that other colors are main players in nature while blue only makes a few cameos. Therefore we are intrinsically wired to steer clear of blue food.
Because of this, some diet plans recommend eating off of blue plates. One blogger http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/doctors_kitchen_1.html did just that but had no negative reaction. She took the experiment one step further, however, by dying various foods blue. Apparantly this made a difference-she threw away her blue muffins and eggs without a single taste.
If dying food blue becomes the next diet craze, count me out. I’ll stick with my blue plates for now.
There are, of course, mainstream items that are giving blue a shot at redemption. A friend of mine often accompanies me to TCBY for frozen yogurt where she unfailingly orders a vanilla yogurt that has been died a putrid shade of neon blue. Upon our latest visit, I finally asked the question begging to be anwered:
“Why do you order that?” I ask. “It’s blue. It can’t be good.”
“I think it looks cool,” she shrugs.
She offers me a taste. Surprisingly, it tastes more or less how vanilla should.
After watching my resigned reaction, a mischivious smirk crawls onto her face and she says:
“Plus it turns my poop blue.”
Now that’s just not appetizing now matter how you color it.
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