Sound - the new spice

2016
08 Mar
By Catherine

We eat with our eyes, that’s a known fact. I didn’t know that sounds also could affect how we experience food. I knew it could affect behavior; a special type of music makes you shop more, or eat faster. But this story fascinated me.

The idea that you experience taste differently when you are exposed to different sounds, it’s probably not that farfetched. Just look at animals.

Great Big Story

 

Our old cat recognized the sound of food immediately, and he didn’t bother to react when he didn’t like it.  The snap, when you start peeling a shrimp, he just materialized beside you. The sound of a can opener going through the lid of a tin of tuna, he was there. Pineapple in the can and he didn’t bother to lift his head. He recognized the different sound and associated them with treats.

So why shouldn’t the way we experience taste change with sound, just as it does with looks, smells and our other senses.

Read the first three chapters in my books

Kapitel 1: Stormen

Vinden ven med ett öronbedövande ljud runt huset, ett komplext och skrämmande ljud. I bakgrunden fanns ett otäckt susande som aldrig riktigt slutade. I förgrunden knakade och tjöt det i takt med att hela huset skallrade, vilket skapade ett olycksbådande dovt ljud. Vinden fick huset att kränga och vrida sig, som om det försökte skydda sig genom att röra sig i ryckiga kvidande rörelser.

… more

Chapter one: A Pica named Tiny

I first met him on a bright summers day, when I almost stumbled over him. He was just a few feet away from our front porch, a tiny little rugged Pica Pica; or Eurasian magpie as he’s more commonly called.

He looked at me with his big, black eyes and he wasn’t scared. When I took a few steps away from the porch, he turned around and walked towards a pile of wood, that my husband had… more

Chapter One

She sat there staring through the airplane window. It was blue sky as far as Helena could see – no other planes, no nothing. If she leaned towards the window, she could see the clouds down below. It was the perfect weather for traveling.

"What are we doing here?" she quietly asked herself. "Is this crazy?"

Helena gazed at her seven-month-old baby boy, soundly asleep in her arms… more