Well, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University answer is “yes.” The core of their studies had people repeatedly imagine eating pieces of cheese, 3 M & Ms, or 30 M & Ms, one at a time. Then when given the imagined food, those who thought about eating those 30 M & Ms, ate a lot less. Maybe they were already full.
My question was, of course, what would imaging more addictive substances like good chocolate, cigarettes, or even wine, do to consumption. Of course, they hadn’t done those studies. So here’s one for us all to try.
Imagine sipping cheap awful red wine. Do that again and again. Now will that prevent you from ever buying and drinking awful wine? I sure hope so.
The other side of this work on perception is that thinking about the food, or in our case, wine, does increase our desire for it. We need to repeatedly imagine the act of ingestion, not just the food itself to lower our intake. I’ll see if I can remember that later when I’m craving those chocolate chip cookies. I have to act as if I’ve eaten them. Will that stop me from getting out of bed for my favorite midnight snack? If it works, I’ll let you know. Let us know us if you try this interesting exploration of mind and mouth.
Source: Carey K. Morewedge et al. Thought for Food: Imagined Consumption Reduces Actual Consumption. Science, 10 December 2010: Vol. 330 pp. 1530-1533