DINE SMARTER NOT HARDER: Dim Romantic Lighting Can Make Your Food Taste Worse

Next time you want to create a delicious and romantic candlelight dinner, you might want to know this:  It’s NOT necessarily going to make you, or your chef, seem like a very good cook.

Here’s why:  Business and psychology researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands have found that dim, romantic lighting can actually make your food taste worse.

Their work was published in the journal Food Quality and Preference.  They got 138 participants to consume a four-course meal, at a restaurant, under various lighting conditions.

And they report, quote, “Guests in the bright light condition rated the overall taste as more intense, as opposed to the guests in the dim light condition.”

The researchers say it’s because food is really a “multisensory” experience – which involves all of your five senses (sight, taste, scent, feel, sound), so it helps you enjoy your food, if you can really SEE it.

Get a little taste of more, here:  (New York Post).  And put the candles away.  Or, leave a light on, with them.