Healthy living
Diet and weight loss
What did you have for lunch?
Rather than increasing your appetite, thinking about your last meal could aid weight loss, say scientists
Remembering details of your last meal could help you resist snacking, and stay slimmer, according to a study reported in the magazine New Scientist. The findings undermine previous research which concluded thinking about food actually makes you feel hungrier.
Researchers at Birmingham University carried out their experiment on 47 healthy female volunteers. The participants were given a hearty lunch and then were asked to take part in a biscuit taste test. Before the tasting half the women were asked to write a detailed description of their lunch while the rest were asked to write about their journey to the university.
After the taste test – which the volunteers were led to believe was the reason for their visit - the women were then invited to snack on the remaining biscuits. The team found that those who had recalled their last meal were likely to eat fewer biscuits than those who had described their journey. And this effect increased the longer the time between lunch and eating the biscuits.
‘The phenomenon of multiple meal eating in amnesic patients suggests that memory for recent eating may play a role in appetite regulation,’ reports study leader Dr Suzanne Higgs, ‘However, to date, there has been no systematic investigation of the effect of memory for recent eating on intake in a non-patient population. Evidence indicates that reminding participants of recent eating (lunch) can suppress intake later in the afternoon.’
But Dr Higgs points out that the important difference in this study was that the participants were made to think about a specific meal rather than food in general.
‘One possibility is remembering recent eating boosts the influence this information has on decision-making,’ says Dr Higgs. So by visualizing the food you last ate your brain is more inclined to decide not to eat again.
‘This study highlights the importance of making meals more of an occasion. If you eat in front of the TV or while you’re working your body doesn’t register that it has eaten so the brain won’t switch off the desire to eat again,’ says registered dietician Gaynor Bussell.
‘One of the top tips for achieving weight loss is to write down what you eat and when. This helps you recognize unhealthy eating patterns so you can make changes to help you stay in shape.’
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