Thursday 2 April 2009

IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN

IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN-A sinful history of forbidden food (Stewart Lee Allen)

"Approximately half of the $19 billion worth of snack foods sold in the US every year falls into the category of "crunch" snacks. This sector increases about 50 percent every decade, but the fastest-growing sector whitin the crunch family are the so-called "extreme foods" which put a premium on extreme auditory effects associated with anger: the splintering of skulls, the screams, the shattering bones, the sound track of mankind of the rampage.
"Taste in many cases is secondary, we're talking food as entertainment" David Futrelle wrote comparing some of the crunch snacks to violent video games. Both create not only similar thrills, but also similar action/response conditioning; just replace the tinny explosions and shrieks the video characters make as they are zapped with the chips' high-frequency roar as they are chewed. While most people accept that violent visual entertainment can inspire real anger, the impact on their culinary cousins is considerably murkier.

According to a NASA study, 65 decibels of sporadic noise can cause a 40 percent rise in hypertension and mental illness, especially among children; other studies have found increased anxiety at levels as low as 51 decibels. The louder the noise, the more agressive the people become.
A person eating a mouthful of potato chips is experiencing an approximately 100 decibel sound level. The chips themselves are made too large to close your mouth around, so their high-frequency roar will curve around your face and reach your ears without any loss of volume.

MarĂ­a Llanos

1 comment:

  1. With this text I want you to point out the possibility of selecting raw materials or elements that include the dimension of sound or texture in the criteria selection. For example, imagine nuts have any special property and emotion linked, the high sound they produce when broken and eated should also be included in the experiment info.

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