Funny Tummies
The weird and wonderful
world of behavioural food
and economics
Brought to you by…

The weird and wonderful world of
behavioural food and economics

An Ode to Funny Tummies
taying healthy isn’t always easy
But eating the wrong food can make us queasy
So understanding more about nutrition
Can make us healthier through our own volition.
So here’s our ode to all things funny
Particularly when it comes to your tummy.
Think of this as our small gift to you,
We hope you enjoy it and learn something new!
taying healthy isn’t always easy
But eating the wrong food can make us queasyBut eating the wrong food can make us queasy
So understanding more about nutrition

“Overconfidence is a very
serious problem. If you
don’t think it affects you,
that’s probably because
you’re overconfident.”
- Carl Richards, author of ‘Behaviour Gap’
(No need to explain the link between
overconfidence and the recent financial crisis)
“Be careful about
reading health
books. You may die
of a misprint.”
- Mark Twain
food for
thought

CONTENTS 1 Baby Tummies
When do we start learning
about nutrition?
5 Environmental Tummies
How can the environment in
which you eat help you eat
more healthily?
7 Visual Tummies
Do you eat with your eyes?
9 Sensory Tummies
Is everyone sitting comfortably?
3 Skinny Tummies
Does dieting work?
We
Love
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CONTENTS 1 Baby Tummies
When do we start learning
about nutrition?
CONTENTSCONTENTS
3 Skinny Tummies
Does dieting work?
CONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTS
9 Sensory Tummies
Is everyone sitting comfortably?
CONTENTS

One of the most interesting life questions is at what age does
learning begin? Psychologists have been fascinated with how and
when we acquire phenomena such as language, knowledge and
emotional intelligence. But when do we learn about nutrition?
Science author of ‘Origins’, Annie Murphy Paul, has drawn on the
latest findings in psychology and biology and has suggested that
learning about nutrition actually starts before we’re born! A relatively
new scientific field, named ‘fetal origins’, explains the theory that our
health and well-being throughout our lives is crucially affected by the
9 months that we spend in the womb.
When do we start learning
about nutrition?
1

So what exactly do fetuses learn in the womb? The answer lies in our
preferences for certain tastes & smells. By 7 months of gestation,
taste buds are fully developed and the olfactory receptors, which are
responsible for smell, are also functioning. When a mother eats, the
flavour of that particular food can be tasted by the fetus through the
amniotic fluid, which is continuously swallowed by the fetus. Babies
seem to remember and prefer these tastes once they're in the world.
In one experiment, a group of pregnant women were asked to drink
a lot of carrot juice during their third trimester of pregnancy, whilst
another group of pregnant women drank only water. Six months later,
the children were offered cereal mixed with carrot juice, and their
facial expressions were observed whilst they ate it. The offspring of
the carrot juice drinkers ate more carrot-flavored cereal, and seemed
to enjoy it more than the children who had only been exposed to
water in utero.
Learning starts much earlier than many imagine so promoting health
and well-being to the next generation needs to take into account the
first 9 months in the womb.
Paul, A. M. (2010). Origins: How the nine months before birth shape the rest of our lives. Simon and Schuster.
2

It is commonly understood that how much you weigh depends on
how much you eat compared with how much you exercise. What
less people know is that hunger and energy expenditure are
controlled by the brain, outside of our conscious awareness.
In short, our brain has a fixed sense of what we should weigh and this
is known as our set point. The set point usually spans a weight range
of 10-15lbs, and this is dictates what our ‘normal’ weight range is. The
set point operates like a thermostat and reacts when we are reaching
either end of our set point to help us get back to our ‘normal’ weight.
We can use lifestyle choices to change our weight within that range
but we experience physiological difficulty when our weight falls
outside of our set point.
Fascinating research by Dr Rubel Leibel found that people who had
lost 10% of their body weight burned 250-400 less calories per day
due to the fact that the brain often interprets diets as starvation
through depleted resources and so conserves energy by suppressing
metabolism. The consequence of this is that successful dieters must
eat 250-400 less calories a day to accommodate this suppression
compared with someone who has always maintained a constant set
point weight.
Does dieting work?
3

New focus has been placed on preventing weight gain (over
assisting weight loss), as dieting has often been shown to be an
ineffective strategy at maintaining long term results and research has
shown that most dieters regain the weight within 5 years of losing it
and 40% put on even more weight.
If dieting isn’t the answer, what do you do instead? The answer may
be in ‘mindful eating’ and learning to understand your body signals
so you stop eating when you’re full. Diets seem harmless but they
are responsible for a lot of collateral damage. We suggest using that
willpower for something more useful!
Aamodt, S. (2016). Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss. Penguin.
4
Psychologists classify people into
2 eating groups:
i) Intuitive eaters who rely on their
hunger to dictate when they eat.
This group are less likely to be
overweight and spend less time
thinking about food.
ii) Controlled eaters who try to
control their intake through
willpower, such as dieters.
This group are more vulnerable to
advertising, super-sizing and
binge eating.

Did you know that you can trick your mind into eating healthier?
Research has shown that our environment trumps willpower
almost every time. So how does our environment affect our eating
habits?
Availability matters - Research has shown that when people are
provided with re-fillable soup bowls, they eat 73% more. Similarly, a
study photographed 200 American kitchens to determine if the food
left out on kitchen counters could predict the weight of the women
living in each of the homes. The results were shocking and showed
that women who kept cereals out on their kitchen counter weighed
20lbs more than their neighbours who didn’t and having soft drinks in
sight resulted in these women being 24-26lbs heavier than those who
didn’t have soft drinks on display. Was there any display food that had
the opposite effect? The good news is that those who had a fruit bowl
weighed around 13lbs less.
How can the environment in
which you eat help you eat
more healthily?
5

Placement matters – It turns out that where you sit in a restaurant
determines the sorts of foods that you eat. When you are seated
furthest from the door, you tend to eat fewer salads & more desserts.
Interestingly, when you sit near a window & on high tables, people
tend to eat more salads because they feel as though they are on
display.
Surroundings matter – the ambience of a restaurant influences what
we eat. Restaurants with dimmer lights and softer, slower cause
diners to eat more slowly and consume less with more satisfaction.
This is the reason why restaurants with a high turnover of tables play
higher temp music to make people eat quicker and reduce dining
time.
“Mindless Eating: The 200 Daily Food Decisions We Overlook,” (2007) Environment and Behavior, Brian Wansink and Jeffrey
Sobal, 39:1 (January), 106-23. 6
VS.

The notion of ‘food porn’ was first introduced in 1984 by the feminist
writer, Rosalind Coward, and is now a hugely popular social media
hashtag on social media. In 2005, it was added to the Urban
Dictionary and has subsequently been exploited famously by Marks
and Spencer in their iconic food adverts.
Research has shown that merely being exposed to photographs of
food can change the way that we perceive the taste of that food. The
visual properties of food, such as the colour, gloss and shape of the
food can alter the other sensory experiences of food, such as the
smell and taste of the food. The extent to which these visual images
affect our perceptions of the flavor of a particular food actually
depends on the learned associations that we have developed
throughout our lifetimes of that particular food and the way that it
looks.
Do you eat with your eyes?
7

More recently, it has even been shown that simply seeing a
photograph of food can increase levels of the neuropeptide ghrelin
which is the hormone that triggers hunger and food intake.
Chefs have long believed that people first eat with their eyes and
research is now proving that their instincts were right all along!
Schüssler, P., Kluge, M., Yassouridis, A., Dresler, M., Uhr, M., & Steiger, A. (2012). Ghrelin levels increase after pictures showing
food. Obesity, 20(6), 1212-1217.
Delwiche, J. F. (2012). You eat with your eyes first. Physiology & behavior,107(4), 502-504. 8

Heston Blumenthal’s “The Fat Duck” at Bray with 3 Michelin stars,
and is voted the best restaurant in the world. So how does he
keep his winning edge?
Heston employed a story-teller, a psychologist, a magician, an
illustrator and a font expert ahead of his re-launch of The Fat Duck to
help him create the unique experience.
The ‘menu’ is written by Lee Hall, a story-teller and writer of Billy
Elliot. His theme is 24 hours of seaside holiday and the ‘menu’
comes with a compass & a magnifying glass which creates
excitement and mystery.
The menu is a multi-sensory experience. The lights above the table
subtly change with each new dish. The ‘sounds of the sea’ dish is
sashimi accompanied with headphones to listen to crashing waves
and children playing at the seaside. For dessert, a doll’s house is
wheeled around on a trolley whilst puffing out smoke rings from the
chimney as diners choose sweets.
Is everyone sitting comfortably?
9

The wording is paramount. ‘Snail porridge’ would not have had the
same impact if it had been called risotto with garlic butter and snails.
The font expert advised using a spikey font on the menu for an acidic
dish to heighten the taste.
Guests making a booking are asked to give information from which a
personalised memorable moment will be created by the chef. The
magician Derren Brown was consulted on how to elicit things about
people without them being too aware.
The whole experience comprises 17 courses in 5 hours and is the
ultimate eating experience. It’s not surprising they get 30,000
booking requests a day for their 40-seater restaurant!
Story-telling is at the heart of everything. Tell us when you’re sitting
comfortably and Heston will begin.
10

Brought to you by…
Raphy March
Behavioural Designer
raphymarch@cowryconsulting.com
Ziba Goddard
Choice Architect
zibagoddard@cowryconsulting.com
Caroline Drummond
Client Services Director
carolinedrummond@cowryconsulting.com

The weird and wonderful world of
behavioural food and economics