Pizza Hut unveils a ‘mood-boosting’ pizza with toppings designed to beat Blue Monday by stimulating the senses
FEELING down in the dumps on Blue Monday? Well, you might want to slice up your life with Pizza Hut's first-ever 'mood-enhancing' pizza.
The fast food chain has worked with behavioural psychologists and a nutritionist to come up with a toppings designed to stimulate the senses and boost the chemicals in the body that increase happiness.
Experts found tomato sauce, mozzarella, tuna, red onion, olives and sweetcorn are the secret ingredients to a happier day.
The 'multi-sensory eating experience' combines food, art and science and the new pizza is designed to be eaten while watching a video created specially for it.
Happiness levels can be increased by stimulating the release of four naturally occurring chemicals in the body.
Working with nutrition expert Rebecca Hirst, the chain identified the key ingredients most likely to boost the four main chemicals - serotonin, dopamine oxytocin and endorphins - in the body.
Ms Hirst said: "Oily fish such as tuna is a source of tryptophan that is converted in the brain to serotonin.
"The same applies to mozzarella cheese – the body uses the protein to synthesise serotonin and dopamine from amino acids.
"Finally, colourful, crunchy vegetables visually stimulate our senses – a rainbow of colour helps us enjoy our food ‘with our eyes’ and gets our taste buds tingling so that we salivate and our body prepares to digest our food well."
A team of behavioural psychologists from Innovationbubble also weighed in on the pizza's design.
They applied a method to identify the top 10 visual and audio cues that create the right psychological responses linked to happiness.
The method was originally designed by professors of Psychology at Harvard.
The research findings included babies, baby laughter, puppies and kittens, love hearts, sunsets, rainbows and clouds – all of which has been brought to life by award winning visual artist, James Burgess for you to enjoy while eating your pizza.
Dr Simon Moore, of Innovationbubble, said: "Humans assess everything we see on an emotional survival dimension - so we quickly judge if something is a threat or likely to make us pleased, happy or excited.
"Using this theory, we worked closely with Pizza Hut UK to identify the visual cues and sounds that makes people the most happy to compliment their mood-boosting pizza."
A Pizza Hut UK spokesman said: "With the limited hours of light and a post Christmas slump, everyone knows January can be a tough month.
"Food can certainly act as a pick me up, but we wanted to offer something more so we hope we help make everyone feel that bit happier this January!"
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Pizza Express has also thrown a recipe into the pizza pick-me-up ring.
The chain has partnered with nutritionist Juliette Kellow to develop a recipe for a nutritionally-balanced ‘mood boosting’ pizza.
The recipe contains a carefully selected combination of ingredients including baked salmon, egg and baby spinach; which have all been proven to provide various mood boosting benefits.
All the ingredients are proven to boost brain function and provide a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals.
Juliette Kellow, nutritionist, says: "Many of us struggle in January: our budgets are smaller, the weather’s generally miserable, and many of us feel the need to shed those extra Christmas pounds.
"However, it’s important that we aren’t adding to our misery by completely depriving ourselves of the treats we enjoy.
"Eating healthily and not skipping meals - which causes a drop in blood sugar; leaving us tired and irritable - is the best way to both maintain your mood and get your diet routine back to normal after the indulgence of the Christmas period."
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