| MadSci Network: Neuroscience |
Dear Grace, Hi! You have chosen a topic that has not generally been investigated well, to my knowledge. I have done a fair amount of research and reading about the control of feeding behavior (eg., see my paper "Sensitivity to satiating and taste qualities of glucose in obese Zucker rats" in the journal Physiology & Behavior, vol. 34, pp. 414-421, 1985), but I am not aware of much study of the influence of food color, as opposed to texture or taste, upon food palatability. One reference I was able to find is by BG Galef & B Osborne "Novel taste facilitation of the association of visual cues with toxicosis in rats" in Journal of Comparative Physiology & Psychology, vol. 92, pp. 907-916, 1978. These researchers report that 1) rats quickly learn to avoid a food taste that, after ingestion, causes nausea, and 2) if the nausea-inducing food is also visually distinctive, the ability of rats to associate the taste of the food with illness is significantly better than if the food was ordinary looking. Beyond this, I'm afraid I can't help you much; I suspect, however, that peculiar colors in food such as blue might very well influence the subjective palatability of the food, so you have a good and very testable idea. Good luck! John Young, Ph.D. Dept. Anatomy Howard University
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