By eating our imaginations, we can prevent gluttony in reality, reports New Scientist.
Until now, people who want to lose weight have been advised not to think about eating. Meanwhile, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh came to the opposite conclusion. In their opinion, the imagination can reduce the initial attractiveness of the stimulus – for example, thinking about smoking it would be easier not to reach for a real cigarette.
The research focused on habituation – that is, a reduced response to repetitive stimuli. For example, the tenth piece of chocolate is no longer as appetizing as the first. The reaction of the digestive system is slow – a feeling of fullness may appear when we have already eaten too much. However, by imagining food, you can fill yourself up earlier.
Scientists divided the volunteers taking part in the experiment into three groups. The first was to imagine that she would put 33 coins in the washing machine they paid for in the laundry, the second – that she would put 30 coins in the washing machine and eat 3 M&M lozenges, the third – that she would put in 3 coins and eat 30 M & Ms. After this intellectual effort, all participants were allowed to freely draw from a bowl full of real M & Ms. Those who previously imagined eating 30 of them actually consumed significantly less than the volunteers of the other two groups. This indicates that imagining the activities of eating can induce habituation to real food.
Subsequent experiments showed that just thinking about an appetizing dish did not prevent you from overeating, only the imagination of eating it worked.
According to specialists, thanks to the results obtained by scientists from Carnegie Mellon, both ways of losing weight and drug addiction programs for smokers, alcoholics and drug addicts should change. (PAP)