Using imagination to reduce snacking

The so-called ‘meal-recall effect’ — remembering a recent meal — can reduce how much food a person will eat later, according to research at University of Cambridge. The researchers investigated the effects of imagining that a recent meal was twice as big and satisfying as reality and the effects of recalling a recent meal in detail.

In an experiment involving 151 participants, the researchers found that imagining a meal as larger resulted in 24 g fewer biscuits being eaten later — equivalent to approximately two biscuits, or 122 kcal fewer. Vividly recalling the meal, as if to relive eating it, did not elicit the meal-recall effect.

Lead author Joanna Szypula said, “Your mind can be more powerful than your stomach in dictating how much you eat.”

Participants in the experiment were given a microwave ready meal of rice and sauce and a cup of water. They were asked to finish the meal if possible, but not if it made them uncomfortably full. The participants were then asked not to eat anything for three hours and invited back into the lab to perform imagination tasks before a ‘taste test’ of biscuits.

The participants were randomly split into five different groups. In three of the groups, participants were asked to recall their recent lunch at the lab. They were then asked to either imagine moving their recent lunch around a plate, recall eating their recent lunch in detail or imagine that their recent lunch was twice as big and filling as it really was. The fourth group was shown a photo of spaghetti hoops in tomato sauce and asked to write a description of it before imagining moving the food around a plate. The fifth group was given the same tasks, but experimenters swapped spaghetti for stationery (paperclips and rubber bands).

Next, all participants took part in a bogus ‘taste test’ of chocolate fingers, digestives and chocolate chip cookies. The most biscuits were eaten by the group who imagined spaghetti hoops (75.9 g), followed by the group who had been asked to imagine stationery (75.5 g). The group who had been asked to imagine moving their lunch around the plate ate the third greatest quantity of biscuits (72.0 g), followed by the group who relived eating their lunch (70.0 g). Those people who imagined their meal twice as big ate the fewest biscuits (51.1g).

“More research is needed to understand how and why the meal-recall effect works,” Szypula said. “This might mean that we are able to harness the effect in a more efficient way and possibly offer valuable advice to people.”

Image credit: iStock.com/mediaphotos