Apparently, when it comes to food, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. Out of sight, out of mind is actually closer to the truth (shall we see how many more cliches I can use before the first paragraph is done?). According to scientists, humans have a very hard time resisting the siren song of the candy jar, because if we see it and it's easy to get to, we're going to have a hard time keeping ourselves away.

Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab has been studying the way people eat, both at home and at work, for years now and have determined that if we see it, we want to eat. According to Brian Wansick, the head of Cornell's Lab, "what really influences our eating are visibility and convenience." Their results make sense to me. If I know that there's ice cream in freezer, it calls to me all evening until I break down and liberate it from it's icy home. However, if I know that there isn't any in there, I may still want it in the abstract, but I'm not going to run out and buy a pint.

What do you guys think? If you know that a treat is only as far away as your co-worker's desk or the freezer or the cabinet over the fridge, how hard is it to resist?

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At first glance, especially with this interior photo, this fruit looks like a cantaloupe. It's not. It's an orange-flesh honeydew melon. I first spotted these unusual yellow-skinned melons at the market this week. They were simply labeled "Orange Flesh," not as a distinct type of melon, but they smelled delicious, so I thought I would give them a try. Apparently, another name for these is the Temptation Melon and they are actually a hybrid between cantaloupes and honeydews. It has a smooth, thin yellow skin and a creamy orange interior that is both juicy and sweet - combining the defining traits of both melon types, though it actually tastes more like honeydew than cantaloupe. I highly recommend picking one up if you can find them.

Andrew mentioned a few weeks back that ice cream trucks in England were being prohibited from operating near schools, largely because of "an over-zealous health lobby. " It looks like ice cream trucks are also being target in some parts of New York, but not for the same reasons.

Instead, parents are the ones who want the trucks banned and they aren't protesting their contribution to childhood obesity, but their own inability to refuse the whims of their children. According to the New York Times, "the mothers and fathers and nannies of TriBeCa had tired of passing [the ice cream truck] each day and arguing with their small charges over whether they could or could not have an ice cream. "

It seems amazing that parents who pass by the same temptation with their toddlers every single day repeatedly have the same argument - apparently with the children winning. If they don't want their kids to eat ice cream, they need to say "no." There was an ice cream truck at the park near the elementary school I went to, to, but it's presence didn't mean that ice cream was something I got, or expected to get, every day.

Previous studies about the tempting nature of foods have always assumed that the brain functions the same way in all people, but it turns out that some people are more affected by images of food than other people are. When someone's "reward center" was over-activated by temptations - say, a picture of a delicious chocolate cake - they were more likely to give in to those temptations. The study noted that such a reaction could make people more susceptible to forms of marketing and product advertisement, as well as even to other addictions, like drug use or alcoholism.

I know that I prefer to see images of tempting foods in cookbooks and on blogs, but I think it gives me a greater appreciation for the food, not necessarily tempting me to overeat. Indeed, something that is perfectly presented might make me less likely to tuck in, not wanting to disturb the art-like arrangement on my place.  Have you ever been driven to overeat by a picture? Does this mean that we need to add a disclaimer to our Food Porn category?