How does the brain read a menu?

The saying goes that we eat with our eyes and there’s definitely truth in that. A summary of research published in the Elsevier Journal of Brain and Cognition in 2016 goes as far back as Apicius, a 1st Century Roman gourmand, who first noted the concept. Scientists attribute the idea to evolutionary development – meaning the sight of food brings instant comfort, knowing as a race that we’re going to survive at least into the immediate future.