THINK!

The other day the New York Times told us about a Cornell University studied that discovered something strange about Cheetos, America’s favorite “cheese-flavored cornmeal snack” (yup, that’s its official title, as proclaimed by Frito-Lay, another corporate son of Texas).

These things are made by blending corn with water; the concoction is heated under pressure and pushed through a die. When contacted with hot air, the steam in the mixture expands creating its terrific texture. The product is then fried. (Other imposters like Puffs, and Twists, and Paws, and Whirls, etc., are oven dried. Nope, not for purists!) The snack is then tumbled with a variety of flavors: Cheese n’ Bacon in Argentina, Requeijao in Brazil, Turkey and Blueberry (not together) in China, Seaweed in Indonesia, Masala in India, Kosher in Israel, Milk Chocolate in Japan, Ketchup in Poland, etc. However Cheese is the flagship flavor.

Chester Cheetah is the proud mascot of the product.

You need to know that Cheetos has a natural color. Guess what it is? Gray. Yes, gray! Without FD&C Yellow No. 6, the artificial color, our favorite “cheese-flavored cornmeal snack” would resemble either bacteria or worms (depending upon magnification).

So scientists at Cornell did a study. They fed subjects the naturally colored “larva/bacteria” version of Cheetos and the FD&C Yellow No. 6 painted ones. And followed this with a taste test. The naked Cheetos lost. Badly. Even though they tasted the same.

You see, the subjects fingers didn’t turn orange. Cheetos crumbs did not coat the clothes, hair, teeth, and tongue of consumers. Not a single yellow crumb on floor or table or napkin. And … apparently, the brain didn’t register a cheesy taste, either.“People ranked the taste as bland and said that they weren’t much fun to eat,” said Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell University who directs its Food and Brand Lab.

Kantha Shelke, a food chemist and spokesperson for the Institute of Food Technologists declared, “Color is such a crucial part of the eating experience that banning dyes would take much of the pleasure out of life.” She’s right, especially when said color somehow, inexplicably, affects the brain. Indeed, color often defines flavor in taste tests. She reminded reporters that tasteless yellow coloring added to vanilla pudding makes it mysteriously taste like banana or lemon pudding.

Magic.

"Color can actually override the other parts of the eating experience,” creating a psychological expectation of what it should taste like, and we end up actually tasting that expected tasted.

  

We taste what we expect to taste.

So, do you want to change your experiences? Lose weight? Golf better? Learn the guitar? You do? Well here’s how to do it.

Change what you think.

Well maybe that’s pushing it.

But the Bible tells us that we need to keep our minds on the right things, concentrate our brains on things of God, attend carefully to his priorities.

Set your mind on the things above,

not on the things that are on earth.

Colossians 3:2

Now what are these “things above”? Certainly not less than what Paul talks about …

Finally, brethren,

whatever is true,

whatever is honorable,

whatever is right,

whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely,

whatever is of good repute,

if there is any excellence and

if anything worthy of praise,

dwell on these things.

Philippians 4:8

Dwelling on the things of God yields benefits.

For the mind set on the flesh

is death, but

the mind set on the Spirit

is life and peace.

Romans 8:6

So, you wanna change your experiences? Think of God and godly things. Guaranteed to change your life!