A recent research published in Food Research International says that being pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised by the taste of something can change a person's mood. Though there have been many previous studies that identified the significant health benefits of yogurt, this initiative focused on the ability of vanilla yogurt in eliciting positive emotional reaction in a series of tests.
Plain low-fat yogurt, which is made by fermenting low-fat or skim milk, is classified as a healthy addition to your diet. It is not only low in calories, but it also has lots of beneficial nutrients and probiotics, live beneficial bacteria, that can enhance overall health.
Tests were carried out among three groups of at least 24 participants. The subjects were given a pair of yogurts to taste, those of the same brand and were marketed in the same way, as well as those that had different flavors or fat content.
Measuring their emotional responses, a new emotive projection test (EPT) helped in determining the effect of different yogurts on people's moods. Hence, the eye-tracking test characterized their gazing behavior and visual attraction of stimuli to aid in food packaging assessment. Likewise, face-reading and autobiographical tests yielded interesting results.
Evidently, vanilla yogurt got a significant positive emotional response, "supporting previous evidence that a subtle vanilla scent in places like hospital waiting rooms can reduce aggression and encourage relationships among patients and between patients and staff".
The research team unearthed that eating vanilla yogurts could make people feel happy. Thus, other yogurts with lower fat content apparently could provide people a stronger positive emotional response.
