We can learn to hate ice-cream - but not cookies
August 4, 2005
Dieters can be put off eating fatty foods like ice-cream by being tricked into believing they were sick after eating them as a child, scientists have discovered.
A leading expert in false memories was able to convince up to 40 per cent of people that they had been ill after eating strawberry ice-cream when they were younger.
The volunteers then started to avoid eating that flavour of ice-cream.
The researchers at California University were also able to do the same with crisps, but failed when they tried to put a group of students off chocolate chip cookies.
They now plan to see if people can be convinced they actually liked healthy foods, such as asparagus and sprouts, when they were young.
Professor Elizabeth Loftus, who led the study, said: "We believe that this new finding may have significant implications for dieting.
"While we know food preferences developed in childhood continue into adulthood, this work suggests that the mere belief one had a negative experience could influence food choices as an adult." The experiment mirrored the techniques used by Derren Brown, the psychological illusionist, who is able to control people's behaviour and "read" their minds through suggestion.
Researchers asked 335 students to fill in questionnaires about their food preferences and experiences.
They were told their answers had been put in a computer, which informed one group they had been made sick by eating strawberry ice-cream as a child.
Dr Loftus said: "People do develop aversions to foods. For example, something novel like bearnaise sauce may make someone sick once, and they can develop a real aversion to that food.
"And with alcohol, there's a medication that actually makes alcoholics sick if they drink, and the idea is to develop an aversion so that the person avoids drinking.
The researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said they were unable to turn students off chocolate chip cookies in the same way.
They said this might be because it is more difficult to form false beliefs about frequently eaten foods.
Source: Scotsman, 02/08/2005
Changing Memories to Improve Nutritional Behavior
August 4, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- If you have ever gotten sick after eating a certain food, you probably don't want to eat that food again. But what if someone else told you that you had gotten sick? Could a made-up memory have the same impact? A new study shows it can and that this power of suggestion could be helpful for dieters.
"We believe this new finding may have significant implications for dieting," says psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., from the University of California Irvine. "While we know food preferences developed in childhood continue to adulthood, this work suggests that the mere belief one had a negative experience could be sufficient to influence food choices as an adult."
For the study, 204 students completed questionnaires about their food preferences. Then they were given a computer-generated analysis. Some of it included false feedback that implied participants had gotten sick from strawberry ice cream as a child. These participants were more likely to say they wanted to avoid the food now that they "remembered" they got sick from it as a child. Loftus says further research is needed to see if these effects are lasting when the actual food is put in front of the participant.
This team is working on another study about memory manipulation. Instead of a negative impact, participants are told they especially liked certain vegetables as a child. The team is studying to see if it will make the participant more inclined to eat these foods as an adult.
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SOURCE: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published online August 2005