Can We Stop Food Longing Through Imaginary Eating?
Are you fighting an urge to reach for chocolate? Then, let it melt in your mind, not in your mouth. According to the recent research, imagining eating a specific food reduces your interest in that food, so you eat less of it.
This reaction to repeated exposure to food—being less interested in something because you've experienced it too much—is called habituation.
The research is the first to show that habituation can occur through the power of the mind. "If you just think about the food itself—how it tastes and smells—that will increase your appetite," said Carey More wedge, a well-known psychologist. "It might be better to force yourself to repeatedly think about chewing and swallowing the food in order to reduce your longing.Visualizing yourself eating chocolate wouldn't prevent you from eating lots of cheese," he added.
More wedge conducted an interesting experiment. 51 subjects were divided into three groups. One group was asked to imagine putting 30 coins into a laundry machine and then eating three chocolates.Another group was asked to imagine putting three coins into a laundry machine and then eating 30 chocolates. Lastly, a control group imagined just putting 33 coins into the machine—with no chocolates.When they said they had finished, these were taken away and weighed. The results showed the group that had imagined eating 30 chocolates each ate fewer of the chocolates than the other groups.
Physical signals—that full stomach feeling—are only part of what tells us we've finished a meal. The research suggests that psychological effects, such as habituation, also influence how much a person eats. It may lead to new behavioral techniques for people looking to eat more healthily, or have control over other habits.
A. What's more, this only works with the specific food you've imagined.
B. People were advised to try different methods to perform the experiment.
C. For example, a tenth bite is desired less than the first bite, according to the study.
D. All of them then ate freely from bowls containing the same amount of chocolate each.
E. It meant those who repeatedly imagined eating would concern about some specific food.
F. This requires the same motor skills as eating small chocolates from a packet, the study says.
G. This study is part of the research looking into what makes us eat more than we actually need.
