Chips Cheer You Up!
As a nation we’ve been enjoying chips for more than 150 years. To celebrate National Chip Week, Potato Council set out to discover what it is that keeps the British love affair with chips alive.
According to chip fans across the country it’s down to their taste, tempting aroma and even their texture, but scientists believe there’s more to the popularity of chips than that.
Experts at Aston University’s School of Life and Health Sciences have delved deeper to uncover the science behind just why we all love chips so much. The study revealed that after eating chips people experienced a 10 and 13 per cent increase in calmness and cheerfulness respectively.
Dr Mike Green who led the research explained: “The consumption of chips clearly improved respondents’ mood. The psychological data showed that participants who were feeling down felt better after eating chips. In fact, calmness was restored within twenty minutes.”
Participants in the study ate chips after being shown a video clip designed to induce a negative mood state**. Changes in mood were measured before and after viewing the clip, and again after eating chips. As well as increases in calmness and cheerfulness, respondents also showed an eight per cent decrease in anxiety after eating chips.
Dr Green added: “There are a number of possible nutritional and psychological mechanisms which could explain the mood changes after eating chips. It may be down to the biological effects of nutritional components on brain chemistry or simply a pleasurable oro-stimulatory sensation, triggered by the way chips taste.”
Ellie King, Potato Council said: “Homemade or from the chippy, we all have our favourite way of eating chips. We know that as a nation we all love chips, but now we can begin to further understand the reasons why.”
An online survey commissioned for National Chip Week revealed that it is the taste of chips that we love the most according to 73 per cent, followed by their smell (20 per cent), and their texture (six percent).
