A New Technique For Reducing Cravings For Junk Food. Part 3 of 3

It was not in the scope of the study to examine how long the effect described lasted, but it is noteworthy to consider. Was it five minutes? Two days? Were the participants hungry 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 sham how someone responds to repeatedly imagining eating a certain food”.

Overweight or obese people may have very different psychological and biochemical responses to this simulation nearly equal compared with normal-weight individuals. “Food cravings are a complex mix of physiological, psychological, environmental and hormonal aspects source. Adopting healthy lifestyle habits, such as eating vegetables, fruits, legumes and full grains, and exercising, may help reduce the strength and frequency of food cravings”.

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A New Technique For Reducing Cravings For Junk Food. Part 2 of 3

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 mixed 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 arrange confirmed that imagining the eating reduced actual consumption through a process known as habituation. Simply thinking about the aliment repeatedly or imagining eating a different food did not significantly influence consumption, the researchers also found.

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

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A New Technique For Reducing Cravings For Junk Food. Part 1 of 3

A New Technique For Reducing Cravings For Junk Food. Researchers shot that they may have hit on a new trick for weight loss: To eat less of a certain food, they suggest you imagine yourself gobbling it up beforehand. Repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces one’s appetite for it at that moment, said lead researcher Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor of social and arbitration sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “Most people think that imagining a food 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 growth our appetite. But performing the mental imagery of actually eating that food decreases our desire for it. For the study, published in the Dec 10, 2010 consummation of Science, Morewedge’s team conducted five experiments. In one, 51 individuals were asked to imagine doing 33 repetitive actions, one at a time.

A control band imagined putting 33 coins into a washing machine. Another group imagined putting 30 quarters into the washer and eating three M&Ms. A third group imagined feeding three quarters into the washer and eating 30 M&Ms. The individuals were then invited to pack away freely from a bowl of M&Ms.

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