A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research finds posture impacts taste perception, with food tasting better when you’re sitting down. Lead author Dipayan Biswas, professor of marketing at the University of South Florida, is an expert in cross-modal effects and looked specifically at how the vestibular sense, which is responsible for balance, posture and spatial orientation, interacts with the gustatory sensory system, which impacts taste and flavor.

He found that holding a standing posture for even a few minutes prompts physical stress, muting taste buds. The force of gravity pushes blood to the lower parts of the body, causing the heart to work harder to pump blood back up to the top of the body, accelerating heart rate. This activates the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and leads to increased concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol. This chain reaction reduces sensory sensitivity, which impacts food and beverage taste evaluation, food temperature perception and overall consumption volume.

When people experience discomfort, foods that normally taste good do not appear as pleasant to the palate. Biswas confirmed his hypothesis by having 350 participants rate the tastiness of a pita chip. Those who were standing gave it a less favorable rating than those who were sitting in a padded chair.

Researchers then gave participants classic bite-sized brownies baked at a local restaurant that were tested and widely considered delicious. Those who were sitting down rated them to be most delicious. However, when the baker altered the recipe and made the taste unpleasant by adding an extra 1/4 cup of salt, the results were opposite. Participants standing up didn’t notice the brownies tasting saltier to that extent, and actually rated them to have a relatively more favorable taste perception than those who sampled them while sitting down.

“This finding suggests that parents might be able to make unpleasant-tasting, healthy foods seem more palatable to reluctant children by having them eat standing up. In a similar vein, it might be beneficial to maintain a standing posture when consuming pharmaceutical products that have unpleasant tastes.”

Biswas expanded the study by inducing additional stress. He required the participants to try fruit snacks while carrying a shopping bag, mimicking what happens when one tries samples at a grocery store. Both sitting and standing participants reported the additional weight made the food item taste worse.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【味觉】wèijué palate the sense of taste

【类似地】lèisì de in a similar vein continuing with something similar to what came before

发表在《消费者研究》杂志上的一项新研究发现，进食姿势会影响味觉感知，坐着的时候，食物的味道会更好一些。研究论文第一作者、南佛罗里达大学市场营销学教授迪帕扬·比斯瓦斯是跨感觉通道领域的专家，他专门研究了负责平衡、姿势和空间定向的前庭觉与影响味道与口感的味觉系统的互动机制。

他发现，保持站立姿势仅几分钟就会引起身体紧张，从而屏蔽味蕾。重力把血液推向身体下部，要将血液输送到身体上部，需要心脏更加用力，从而导致心率加快。这会激活下丘脑—垂体—肾上腺

（HPA）轴，并导致压力荷尔蒙皮质醇浓度上升。这种连锁反应将降低感觉的敏感性，后者会影响对餐饮口味的评价、对食物温度的感知以及进食量。

当人们感到不适时，美味的食物似乎不会带来味蕾的愉悦。通过让350名参与者评估一种皮塔饼的口感，比斯瓦斯证实了他的假设。那些站着进食的人对这种食物的评价要比坐在坐垫椅上进食的人差一些。

随后，研究人员向参与者提供了当地一家餐馆制作的小块布朗尼精品蛋糕，这些蛋糕经过了试吃，人们普遍认为很美味。坐着进食的人对其评价为最可口。不过，当面包师改变配方，额外加入四分之一杯盐让蛋糕变得难吃时，结果却截然相反。站着进食的参与者并没有注意到布朗尼蛋糕的味道变咸了，实际上他们对改变了配方的蛋糕评价要高于那些坐着品尝的参与者。

比斯瓦斯说：“这一研究结果表明家长或许可以让不愿吃东西的孩子站着进食，从而让味道不好的健康食物显得更加可口一些。同样的道理，在吃味道不好的药品时保持站姿也许是有益的。”

比斯瓦斯通过给受试增加负重扩展了该项研究。他要求参与者在携带购物袋的情况下品尝水果点心，以模拟在食杂店品尝食物样品时的情形。坐着和站着进食的参与者都表示，额外的负重让食物的味道变差了。 (Chinadaily.com.cn)