Sketching a pizza is just as satisfying as eating one

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According to a new study by researchers at St Bonaventure University in New York, drawing unhealthy foods, such as pizza, pies and cupcakes, can improve our mood by up to 30 per cent.

The study, published in the Journal of Behavioural and Brain Science, shows that just looking at images of food, rather than eating it, can positively affect our mood.

The study involved 61 students who were randomly split into four groups. All the participants were given red, green and black pencils and were asked to draw a plate of food. One group drew cupcakes, another group drew pizza, the third strawberries and the fourth were asked to draw capsicum. All students were drawing on an empty stomach.

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Before and after sketching the foods the students underwent psychological assessments on their mood, hunger and levels of excitement. The results showed significant differences in mood levels, but hunger levels remained the same.

The group drawing the unhealthy pizza showed a 28 per cent uplift in mood and the group given the high fat, high sugar cupcakes to draw had an uplift of 27 per cent. Strawberries (healthy, but still high in sugar) showed a 22 per cent improvement, while the healthy capsicum barely rates a mention, with just one per cent improvement in mood.

Researchers say that the mood changes can be attributed to the types of food they were sketching, as they were all given the same colours to draw with.

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