Imagine Food and Crave It Less

For years I have controlled my weight just by thinking about and imagining the foods that are supposedly bad for you, but not eating them. I attend a lot of baseball games in San Francisco during the summer and get by simply by inhaling the smell of grilled sausages and garlic fries. Or chicken and ribs at the local popular rib joint, Q-N4-U. Or that banana split at Dewar’s ice cream shop in Bakersfield, CA.

Late last year, a new Carnegie Mellon University study found that the act of imagining food in every way possible actually makes you eat smaller portions.

“We eat with our eyes," said Brian Wansink, a Cornell University professor. Then again, my late-mother used to say as a kid, “my mouth was bigger than my stomach," when I ate too much of the so called “good stuff." Wansink’s studies have been credited with the development of such diet aids as the 100-calorie snack packs and the small plate movement. Wouldn’t that be tapas? Both very successful marketing strategies.

Other researchers speculate imagining what food will taste like can cause the brain to release a chemical called dopamine, which affects feelings of hunger and satiety. But of course, imaging the taste of food may trigger the satiety effect … but more research is needed.

As for me, I just might have a few garlic fries this baseball season for the world champion San Francisco Giants; and I might even mosey on up to the grand buffet at the hotel in Las Vegas next week. Unless my thoughts and imagination get the better of me.

http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/blogs/tonic/2011/02/imagine-food-and-crave-it-less.aspx

http://www.depsyl.com/

http://back2basicnutrition.com/

http://bionutritionalresearch.olhblogspace.com/