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Where do food cravings come from? Many research studies suggest that mental imagery may be a key component of food cravings -- when people crave a specific food, they have vivid images of that food. Results of one study showed that the strength of participants' cravings was linked to how vividly they imagined the food. Mental imagery (imagining food or anything else) takes up cognitive resources, or brain power. Studies have shown that when subjects are imagining something, they have a hard time completing various cognitive tasks. In one experiment, volunteers who were craving chocolate recalled fewer words and took longer to solve math problems than volunteers who were not craving chocolate. These links between food cravings and mental imagery, along with the findings that mental imagery takes up cognitive resources, may help to explain why food cravings can be so disruptive: As we are imagining a specific food, much of our brain power is focused on that food, and we have a hard time with other tasks.

New research findings suggest that that this relationship may work in the opposite direction as well: It may be possible to use cognitive tasks to reduce food cravings. The results of one experiment revealed that volunteers who had been craving a food reported reduced food cravings after they formed images of common sights (for example, they were asked to imagine the appearance of a rainbow) or smells (they were asked to imagine the smell of eucalyptus). In another experiment, volunteers who were craving a food watched a flickering pattern of black and white dots on a monitor (similar to an untuned television set). After viewing the pattern, they reported a decrease in the vividness of their craved-food images as well as a reduction in their cravings.

According the researchers, these findings indicate that "engaging in a simple visual task seems to hold real promise as a method for curbing food cravings." The authors suggest that "real-world implementations could incorporate the dynamic visual noise display into existing accessible technologies, such as the smart phone and other mobile, hand-held computing devices." They conclude that these experimental approaches may extend beyond food cravings and have implications for reducing cravings of other substances such as drugs and alcohol.

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Researchers have found a commonality in food cravings among people in the CALERIE trial at Tufts University. The types of foods people crave are individual, but in general, cravings are common and are for foods high in calories, not for foods specifically high in carbohydrates or fats. The results of this calorie-restriction study demonstrate that accepting cravings as normal and keeping them in check may be a key component of weight management.(...)
"These findings suggest," says Roberts, "that cravings are for calories, not carbohydrate, as is widely assumed. What is commonly called carbohydrate addiction should probably be relabeled as calorie addiction," she added. Some of the most commonly craved foods among study participants were foods that have high sugar plus fat, such as chocolate, and salty snacks, such as chips and French fries. "The craved foods do have carbohydrate, but they also have fat, and some protein, too. The most identifiable thing about the foods people crave is that they are highly dense in calories," Roberts deduces.

AnaO napisał(a):Ech. Jest coraz gorzej.

Monika_D napisał(a):A ja się natknęłam na taki oto artykuł:

http://www.faceci.com.pl/r_mleko.html

Jest totalnie rewolucyjny, ale moim zdaniem prawdziwy.