A significant component of food craving involves mentally “seeing” the tempting food, and food cravings can be countered by distracting the mind with unrelated imagery, according to new research.
Let’s say you crave a cookie. The best way to fight the temptation is to
A) Think about the cardiovascular risks that come with obesity
B) Remind yourself about how you want to look in a swimsuit
C) Eat the cookie and tell yourself it will be the last cookie you’ll eat
D) Focus on an untuned TV set’s random black and white dots
The correct answer is D.
I based this puzzle on research by Eva Kemps and Marika Tiggemann. The researchers noticed that food cravings are different than general hunger. When we crave something, we crave just that thing — only the chocolate-chip cookie will suffice, not ice-cream or a fruit tart. Much of this craving involves mentally imagining the cookie, down to small details, and imaginging how delicious it would taste etc. The researchers speculate that one reason cravings may be difficult to counter is that cravings “use up” significant amounts of the hidden brain’s resources, leaving little room for the kind of mental processing that advises us against eating unhealthy food.
Volunteers gripped by food cravings reported reductions in these cravings when they were asked to visualize specific images in their minds, such as a rainbow. In another experiment, volunteers asked to watch black and white dots on a monitor, very similar to the flickering TV screen described in option D, reported reductions in their food cravings.
I’m struck by how similar adult minds are to those of small children. (When you come to think about it, why should they be different — the minds of adults grow out of children’s minds.) Just as you can distract small children who want a cookie by suggesting an alternate activity, it appears you can do the same to your adult mind. In both cases, what is happening is that the conscious mind is finding a way to override the impulses of the hidden brain.
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