Colors affect how you feel.
They can also determine how much you eat. That's from Leslie Harrington, author of The Art of Exterior Painting: A Step-by-Step Guide. There are "innate" colors and "learned" colors. Innate colors automatically affect your body, and you can't help how you react. And learned colors become triggers because of your life experience.
- For instance, fast-food restaurants use innate colors that encourage you to eat--Yellow grabs your attention, but makes you look away quickly, because it's the hardest color for the brain to process. And red automatically raises your blood pressure, ups your pulse rate, and makes you want to eat more. That's why McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King use both colors - yellow to pull you in, and red to make you hungry.
- Blue is another innate color only it makes you want to eat less. Why? Because few foods are naturally blue, like blueberries. And it's also the color of mold and decay. So, you won't find many restaurants decorated in blue except maybe seafood restaurants with a nautical theme. What about "learned" colors? They're colors you learn to associate with certain things:
- For instance, ice cream and candy shops are almost always pink inside. Because of that, pink automatically triggers your sweet tooth.
- Green is also a learned color. It makes you think of grass, trees and nature, things that are healthy and fresh, like a salad.
