60秒科学:餐厅太吵 食物就不那么美味了
Noise can make food taste more bland 1, but also increase the perception of its crunchiness. Christopher Intagliata reports
餐馆里的噪音除了会打扰到你的交谈之外还会对食物的口味产生什么影响呢？
A noisy restaurant can distract you from your dinner conversation. But all that clatter 2 may also drown out the taste of your food, making it more bland. That's according to a study in the journal Food Quality and Preference. [A.T. Woods et al., "Effect of background noise on food perception"]
Researchers recruited 48 college students, and fitted them with headphones playing either loud white noise, soft white noise, or nothing at all. Then the participants closed their eyes and chomped 3 on snack foods like Pringles and cookies.
Turns out the students listening to blaring static rated the chips as less salty and the cookies as less sweet—even though they were tasting the same foods as the other groups.
Previous studies have shown that sound can interfere 4 with how the brain processes smell; the researchers say the same could be true for taste. Or, loud noise could simply divert attention from the food's flavor.
But it's not all bad news for loud restaurants. In a second study, students rated crunchy foods as crunchier in the presence of loud white noise—perhaps because it tuned 5 them into the sound of their food. The researchers say this study may explain why airline food ain't earning any Michelin stars. Me, I think there's a little more to it than the engine noise.
—Christopher Intagliata
- He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
- This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。
- The dishes and bowls slid together with a clatter.碟子碗碰得丁丁当当的。
- Don't clatter your knives and forks.别把刀叉碰得咔哒响。
- He chomped his way through two hot dogs. 他呼哧呼哧地吃掉了两个热狗。
- The boy chomped his sandwich. 这个男孩大口嚼着三明治。 来自互联网