A New Technique For Reducing Cravings For Junk Food

A New Technique For Reducing Cravings For Junk Food.
Researchers promulgate that they may have hit on a changed trick for weight loss: To eat less of a certain food, they suggest you anticipate yourself gobbling it up beforehand. Repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces one's zeal for it at that moment, said lead researcher Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor of social and steadfastness sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Most people think that imagining a victuals increases their desire for it and whets their appetite. Our findings show that it is not so simple".

Thinking of a food - how it tastes, smells or looks - does advance our appetite. But performing the mental imagery of really eating that food decreases our desire for it. For the study, published in the Dec 10, 2010 printing of Science, Morewedge's team conducted five experiments. In one, 51 individuals were asked to take it doing 33 repetitive actions, one at a time.

A control gang imagined putting 33 coins into a washing machine. Another group imagined putting 30 quarters into the washer and eating three M&Ms. A third order imagined feeding three quarters into the washer and eating 30 M&Ms. The individuals were then invited to devour open-handedly from a bowl of M&Ms.

Those who had imagined eating 30 candies actually ate fewer candies than the others, the researchers found. To be solid the results were related to imagination, the researchers then diverse up the experiment by changing the number of coins and M&Ms. Again, those who imagined eating the most candies ate the fewest.

In three additional experiments, Morewedge's classify confirmed that imagining the eating reduced authentic consumption through a process known as habituation. Simply thinking about the foodstuffs repeatedly or imagining eating a different food did not significantly influence consumption, the researchers also found.

This simulation knack might also help reduce cravings for unhealthy foods and drugs, the authors say. However, at least one skilled had reservations about the findings. "This small study may offer insights for further research, but the note is not that we can think ourselves thin or reduce food cravings by repeatedly imagining eating a invariable food," said Samantha Heller, clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.

It was not in the field of the study to examine how long the effect described lasted, but it is consequential to consider. Was it five minutes? Two days? Were the participants covetous during one part of the study but not during another arm of the experiment? And were they normal weight, overweight or underweight, she asked. "All these factors, and many more, could assume how someone responds to repeatedly imagining eating a ineluctable food".

Overweight or obese people may have very different psychological and biochemical responses to this simulation come near compared with normal-weight individuals. "Food cravings are a complex mix of physiological, psychological, environmental and hormonal aspects menjual. Adopting thriving lifestyle habits, such as eating vegetables, fruits, legumes and unbroken grains, and exercising, may help reduce the strength and frequency of food cravings".