An experiment by Danish scientists has shown that a person can satisfy their appetite simply by looking at photos of food on their phone.
< p>The Internet is full of photos of food: on news sites, in social networks and on advertising banners. Many of these images are designed to sell specific products. A new study from Aarhus University shows that looking at photos of food can have the opposite effect. At least if we look at a picture of the same food at least 30 times.
«In our experiments, we showed that when participants saw the same picture of food 30 times, they felt more satiated than before they saw this picture. People who were shown the picture many times also chose a smaller portion than those who saw the picture only three times. Our appetite is more closely related to our cognitive perception than most of us realize. How we think about our food is very important,” explains one of the researchers Tjark Andersen.
In brain research, these results are explained by the so-called theory of informed cognition. For example, if you imagine sticking your teeth into a juicy apple, the same areas of the brain are stimulated as if you were actually biting into an apple. To find out how photos of food affect satiety, Tjark Andersen and colleagues conducted a series of online experiments on more than 1,000 people. Participants in the study were shown pictures of food and recorded changes in their appetite.
According to WHO, obesity is one of the most serious health problems facing humanity. And the reason we gain weight is because we eat too much food, especially unhealthy food, and we don't exercise often enough. Scientists hope that the results of the experiment will help fight the problem of overweight and obesity.