Can believing you are a food addict affect your eating behavior?
Obesity is often attributed to an addiction to food and many people believe themselves to be "food addicts." However, until now no studies have looked at whether believing oneself to be a food addict influences how much we eat. 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 behaviour. Bogus feedback In two separate studies, women completed a series of computer tasks about food. 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, participants who were told they scored ...