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The essential hue

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Why you can trust SCMP

Do you ever see red or feel blue? Go green with envy much? Colour is inextricably linked to the way we - literally and figuratively - see the world. It has been used to mark moods, spice up language and influence decisions in everything from the minutiae to the important.

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Many studies have found that colour affects our mood, performance and judgment in many unconscious, but important, ways. Most recently, a study published in January by the Journal of Consumer Research shows that colour might even be able to help you stay slim.

Participants were asked to serve pasta with white or red sauce on either a large white or large red plate. On average, changing the colour of the plate so it was high contrast reduced how much people served by 21 per cent, and changing the colour of the tablecloth reduced how much people served by 10 per cent.

But our physiological connection with colour goes beyond the realm of mood and behaviour. There is a growing body of research to show that coloured light affects the way our bodies function, and can therefore be harnessed for healing purposes.

Colourpuncture, for example, applies coloured light to the acupuncture points of the body in order to access the meridian network, and through it, the organs in the body.

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According to Keven Duff, a Hong Kong-based certified colourpuncture therapist, studies show that cells or organisms use light to communicate. 'If cells can use light to communicate, we can potentially use light to communicate with and to regulate the cells,' she says.

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