VOA英语2010年-Thinking About Eating Could Help You Lose We

New research finds that the act of imagining eating can actually make you feel less inclined to eat more. The finding may lead to more healthy diets and better treatment for addiction¹.

What happens when you get used to something? Scientists say you become habituated. Think about walking into a brightly lit room. After a few minutes, the lighting² seems normal. Carnegie Mellon University researcher Carey Morewedge uses a food example.

"When you eat the first cookie, you're going to have a much stronger desire, and you're going to have a stronger physiological³ response to that cookie, than when you eat your fifth or your tenth," he says.

But what if, instead of eating those five or 10 cookies, you just imagined eating them. Would you become habituated, and maybe lose interest? Or would all that mental "eating" just stimulate⁴ your appetite?

To find out, Morewedge and his colleagues tried some experiments, asking people to imagine eating various quantities of chocolate. And, as a control, some were asked just to imagine moving the food around. Then, they were all offered real chocolates.

"Participants who imagined eating 30 chocolates, we found, ate fewer actual chocolates than participants who imagined eating three," he said. "Whether other participants imagined moving the chocolate or doing some kind of unrelated task didn't really affect how much they ate in the same way."

In case chocolate isn't your cup of tea, the researchers did similar experiments with cheese, and got similar results.

So just thinking about the food doesn't affect desire; thinking about eating it does.

This habituation happens very quickly, faster than the feedback we get from our digestive system that tells us to stop when we've eaten enough.

Morewedge says this isn't just a research finding; it potentially has real, practical application.

"Habituation happens so quickly that it could be used to help people regulate their food intake⁵ and perhaps help us develop behavioral interventions⁶ to reduce the intake of unhealthy foods that we start eating, and help us reduce our cravings for those foods so we can make healthier food choices beforehand."

And not just food. Carnegie Mellon University psychologist Carey Morewedge says the same approach might work to help people reduce their use of cigarettes, alcohol, or illegal drugs.

Morewedge describes his experiments and the results in the journal Science.

1 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

2 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

3 physiological   

adj.生理学的，生理学上的

参考例句：

• He bought a physiological book.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
• Every individual has a physiological requirement for each nutrient.每个人对每种营养成分都有一种生理上的需要。

4 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

5 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

6 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网