Everyday Systems

A new study provides real evidence for the benefits of imaginary eating.

When people imagined themselves eating M&Ms or imagined themselves eating pieces of cheese, they became less likely to actually gorge on the real things.

Findings from the study at Carnegie Mellon University were reported in the current issue of Science.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/scien ... ted=2&_r=1

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_16820381

So if you sit around and imagine eating a lot of M&Ms, you won't.

If you sit around and imagine yourselves eating a bunch of cheese, you won't.

This could be another weapon to add to NoS.

Fascinating -- gives a whole new meaning to the term "virtual plate."

Thanks for the links!

If anyone finds this technique useful please let us know here.

Reinhard

I've tried this a few times, but never thought it actually had any real results. lol That's pretty cool. Thanks for the links.

The second one said "Obsessing about a particular food in a particular way appeared to dampen its appeal in a study that demonstrates that merely thinking about a food — not actually seeing, touching, smelling or tasting it — can help sate hunger through a process called habituation."


I think that there is a big difference between "appeal/obsessing about a particular food" and "hunger". I doubt that it affected the hunger but believe that it probably helped with the obsession. Hmmm... I think I'll try this today when I start craving those Christmas goodies!

I read about this on another forum and tried it. I imagined myself eating a package of 3 candybars that are like Snickers with peanuts. I heard the paper crackle as I opened them...I smelled the chocolate...I felt my teeth almost hurt from all that sweetness...I felt my tongue curl at the edges at that first taste of the caramel...I felt the peanuts crunch between my teeth...I felt stuffed after eating all three...I felt uncomfortably full...

I have a very vivid imagination! The result was I didn't eat candy bars even though I had them in the cabinet. It is effective if you have a good imagination.

This would be torture for me.

It's not really torture. I actually tasted the candybars. I had all the pleasure without the extra calories or the RED.

I think imaginary candy bars, for me, magically turn into real candy bars.

[quote]The habituation occurred as people imagined eating 30 M & M’s or 30 cubes of Kraft Cheddar, one at a time. They were shown photos of each M & M for three seconds, and each cube of cheese for five seconds.

The habituation effect didn’t occur when people imagined eating just three M & M’s or cubes of cheese. Nor did it occur when people imagined moving M & M’s one at a time into a bowl or doing other mental tasks, like feeding quarters into a laundry machine."
[/quote]

Yes, one hopes you don't go get the food before you're virtually full. I know I bought many a gorge food because of my imagining how good it would taste and feel to eat it. I didn't take it to its logical end and remember vividly how it felt to finish it off.

I think this would work for me.

I'm one of those people who likes to smell food, even if it's not permissible to have it yet. For example, my job has me in and out of supermarkets all day. I like to walk past the bakery and inhale the smells even on N days.

This would be torture for my husband. He'd be facedown in a cherry pie in 10 (maybe 20) seconds.

Different strokes for different folks.