Researchers have just developed a brain-training video game that can help us moderate our sugar consumption.
Diabetes, obesity, risk of cancer or cardiovascular disease… The dangers associated with excessive sugar consumption are regularly the subject of prevention campaigns, but despite everything we continue to regularly eat excessively sweet foods such as sweets, biscuits and cakes. And it’s not just because of a lack of willpower that we continue to eat these unhealthy foods. Several studies have indeed demonstrated the addictive effects of sugar on the brain.
How to moderate your sugar consumption and favor more nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables? Researchers may have found the solution. In a study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, they explain that they have developed a “brain training” video game in order to encourage players to consume less sugar. Its particularity: it targets the part of the brain that inhibits impulses. “Cognitive, or ‘brain’, training games have been used to help people cut down on unhealthy habits, like smoking,” says Dr. Evan Forman, professor of psychology at the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Drexel and co-author of the study. “We have also seen positive results from labs using these computer programs.”
Personalized brain training
Tentatively called “Diet DASH”, this cognitive training-based game is personalized based on each participant’s tendencies to eat sweets or not.
A total of 109 participants who were overweight and ate sweets were recruited for the trial. They first attended a workshop before the start of the game to help them understand why sugar is harmful to their health and to learn what foods to avoid and how to do so.
“The workshop helped give participants strategies for following a sugar-free diet. However, we hypothesized that participants would need an additional tool to help them manage sweet cravings,” explains the Dr Forman. “Daily workouts can make or break a person’s ability to follow the no added sugar diet. They strengthen the part of your brain to not react to cravings for sweets.”
Participants then played the computer game for a few minutes every day for six weeks, then once a week for two weeks. The game consists of moving as quickly as possible through a grocery store to put healthy foods in your basket, while refraining from choosing sweets. Points are awarded based on the items placed in the cart.
A marked decrease in body weight
For more than half of the participants, who showed a greater preference for sweets, the game helped them lose up to 3.1% of their body weight in eight weeks. Participants also indicated that they found the daily training satisfying, that it was part of their daily routine and that they wanted to continue it if it was available.
For the authors of the study, these results prove that regular use of computer brain training can help you eat better and therefore facilitate weight loss. They are currently running a new trial with an improved version of the game aimed specifically at men and are looking for new participants.
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