For control your hunger and his food urges we can use simple and harmless gestures, according to a new scientific study presented at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society in Boston. Indeed, banging (gently) the forehead with the index finger for 30 seconds would avoid falling for a treat.
Researchers at Mount Sinai St Luke’s Hospital (New York, USA) performed a behavioral study with 55 patients with severe obesity. They tested the effect of 4 repeated diversionary gestures for 30 seconds (patting the forehead, the ear, moving a toe and staring at a wall) on the body. hunger volunteers.
First, scientists triggered the craving in patients by offering them gourmet foods.
Then they rated the intensity of their hunger and the accuracy of the image of the food they were visualizing in their mind.
Participants then had to pat their foreheads, ears, wiggle a toe, or stare at a wall for 30 seconds.
The results show that all 4 exercises helped patients curb their hunger, but patting the forehead was the most effective. Indeed, it made it possible to blur the mental image of the subjects of the desired food and to neutralize the craving better than the other exercises.
“The results of this study reinforce the idea that it is possible to turn away from your cravings for food, even our favorite foods, and no matter what your starting weight”, explains Dr. Weil, director of the slimming program. of St Luke’s Hspopital during its presentation. “These exercises could be integrated into strategies of weight loss ”. Promoting weight loss could help reduce obesity, a pathology that has become a major global health issue.
Indeed, obesity and overweight are the risk factors for early mortality that increase the most. They cause type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol. With more than 3 million deaths per year, they move to 6th place in the ranking of health risk factors in the world. However, obesity would have become the new norm of corpulence according to the World Health Organization. In fact, in Europe, 27% of 13-year-olds and 33% of 11-year-olds are overweight.
