DARWIN, MEET GHRELIN.

This series views how and why we find food appealing. In an evolutionary sense, natural
foods have been designed to be consumed in order to distribute seeds, reproducing the
plant. This appeal is made by being bright colors, crisp textures, glossy. Equally,
manufactured foods replicate these attributes to make them more appealing to the
consumer.

According to a 2006 study titled "Individual Differences in Reward Drive Predict Neural
Responses to Images of Food," in the Journal of Neuroscience, scientists concluded
that if a person is shown an appealing image of food, they will crave it more than
without imagery. These photos trigger the hunger hormone, ghrelin, creating salivation
and a lust that was not previously present. The hormone is this powerful because it is
linked as one of the two necessities for survival : nourishment.

Here we see a combination of harnessing the characteristics that make food enticing
while also making note that an image itself will evoke a craving. This photographic
product becomes more powerful than the food itself because the mind creates a need
for something that wasn't there to begin with.