Personal food addiction beliefs may affect eating behavior
Many people believe themselves to be food addicts and obesity is also often attributed to this addiction. But until recently, there have been no studies that really looked at whether believing oneself to be a food addict influences how much we eat.
Now, researchers from the University of Liverpool published a paper about their work on how beliefs about food addiction can affect eating behavior.Helen Ruddock and colleagues from the University’s Institute of Psychology, Health and Society examined the impact of changing participants’ personal food addiction beliefs on eating behavior.
Women were asked to do a series of computer tasks about food in two separate studies. But on completion, they were given bogus feedback on their performance which indicated that they had either high-, low-, or average-levels of food addiction. Their intake of unhealthy foods (chocolate and crisps) was then measured in a taste test.
Participants who were told they scored highly in food addiction went on to consume fewer calories than those who were told they had a low or average score.Furthermore, these participants also reported greater concern about their eating behavior. This, in turn, reduced the amount of time they spent tasting the foods during the taste test.
“Our research found that participants who believed themselves to be ‘food addicts’ reduced the amount of time they were exposed to unhealthy foods and ate less as a result. This appears to be because the perception of being a food addict made them concerned about their eating behavior. Our study is first to show that personal beliefs about food addiction can influence how much we eat. Further work with a larger sample group and over a longer time period is now needed,” Ruddock said.
Source: Science Daily
