Fat Head? New Study Shows Thinking About Food Can Reduce Cravings For Food

A new study suggests that common wisdom on dieting may be wrong. Many people try to avoid thinking about food but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found that imaging yourself eating foods can reduce your cravings . . . but does it give you a fat head?

The study suggests that you may want to imagine yourself eating the food. under the theory that the “tenth bite of chocolate . . . is desired less than the first bite.” Carey Morewedge, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh led the study.

We just took the kids to New York and stopped by Dylan’s candy store. Their use of their imaginations in consuming the candy did not appear to register any reduction in my own field experimentation. They started with the chocolate fountain and eat their way through the giant lollipops. Of course, I did not try suggesting that we all “eat in our minds” — largely out of fear of being thrown into a nearby wood chipper and then scattered in Central Park.

Source: National Geographic