'brain training' could teach people how to stop snacking

[White Swallow]

Daily Mail

'Brain training' could be the key to curbing the desire to snack, scientists have claimed.

Researchers believe that the kind of 'brain training' exercises made popular by Nintendo's handheld computer game could dramatically improve our health.

The researchers believe that snack consumption and weight are linked to both brain activity and self-control.

The team from the universities of Exeter, Cardiff, Bristol, and Bangor discovered that an individual’s brain 'reward centre' response has more of an effect on the amount they ate than their feelings of hunger or how much they wanted the food.

Experts say the study 'adds to mounting evidence that over-eating and increased weight are linked, in part, to a region of the brain associated with motivation and reward.'

Academics at Exeter and Cardiff have already begun testing 'brain training' techniques to reduce the lure of food on individuals with low levels of self-control.

Similar tests are used to assist those with gambling or alcohol addiction.

Dr John Parkinson, senior lecturer at Bangor University’s School of Psychology said: 'Our study has important implications for our understanding of how people become obese - and how they might also lose weight - issues that are really important to health.

'Nobody chooses to become obese and what this research suggests is that our conscious minds are not actually driving over-eating.

'Instead, enticing high-fat and high-sugar food images are getting direct access to our brain motivation systems and triggering over-eating behaviour.'

Dr Natalia Lawrence of the university of Exeter, lead researcher, said: 'Our research suggests why some individuals are more likely to over-eat and put on weight than others when confronted with frequent images of snacks and treats.

Food images, such as those used in advertising, cause direct increases in activity in brain ‘reward areas’ in some individuals but not in others.

If those sensitive individuals also struggle with self-control, which may be partly innate, they are more likely to be overweight.

'We are now developing computer programs that we hope will counteract the effects of this high sensitivity to food cues by training the brain to respond less positively to these cues.'

The study involved 25 young, healthy women. MRI scanning was used to detect their brain activity while they were shown images of household objects, and food that varied in desirability and calorific content.

[ARG1982]

Hey there. This is actually a very interesting article. Over the last year & half or so, I have been using Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz's "Four Steps" in brain training to help fight my OCD. This book was a lot of help:

[White Swallow]

Food images, such as those used in advertising, cause direct increases in activity in brain ‘reward areas’ in some individuals but not in others.

If those sensitive individuals also struggle with self-control, which may be partly innate, they are more likely to be overweight.

In that case, maybe we should have a ban on advertising such foods, like we do tobacco advertising, to help tackle the obesity epidemic. ("Severely obese children's hearts already in danger")

Hey there. This is actually a very interesting article. Over the last year & half or so, I have been using Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz's "Four Steps" in brain training to help fight my OCD. This book was a lot of help:

One of my boyfriends has OCD; I'll have to check that book out.

Nice to see you back here, BTW, poppet; I thought of you yesterday when I heard the Mets were going to be playing the Dodgers. I hope your boys won.

[Bug Snot]

n that case, maybe we should have a ban on advertising such foods

I've thought about that before. I mean, you basically have huge corporations spending millions upon millions of dollars to wage psychological warfare on us, and we don't even really know what the effects are, beyond just making us want to buy Twinkies. It's sort of ridiculous to say that these corporations should have unlimited access to parts of our brain that we have no control over.

One of my boyfriends

Skank.

[ARG1982]

Food images, such as those used in advertising, cause direct increases in activity in brain ‘reward areas’ in some individuals but not in others.

If those sensitive individuals also struggle with self-control, which may be partly innate, they are more likely to be overweight.

In that case, maybe we should have a ban on advertising such foods, like we do tobacco advertising, to help tackle the obesity epidemic. ("Severely obese children's hearts already in danger")

Hey there. This is actually a very interesting article. Over the last year & half or so, I have been using Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz's "Four Steps" in brain training to help fight my OCD. This book was a lot of help:

One of my boyfriends has OCD; I'll have to check that book out.

Nice to see you back here, BTW, poppet; I thought of you yesterday when I heard the Mets were going to be playing the Dodgers. I hope your boys won.

You should definitely let him know about it. Anyway, that is so sweet that you were thinking of me, I appreciate it. I am glad I have had that sort of impact on your life. But, this should tell you how the Mets have been doing lately:

[White Swallow]

that is so sweet that you were thinking of me

You pop into mind whenever I see one of those Siamese Fighting Fish too, my dear.

Anyhoo...

Sorry to hear your sports team blows, sweetie; but you're in good company with Rob and Maddy on that score.

[Bug Snot]

Sorry to hear your sports team blows, sweetie; but you're in good company with Rob and Maddy on that score.

I think White Swallow mocking anything for blowing is the height of irony.

BTW, obviously White Swallow has to be a reference to sperm guzzling, but does it have any other meaning? Is it a reference of some sort?

[White Swallow]

BTW, obviously White Swallow has to be a reference to sperm guzzling, but does it have any other meaning?

I don't know what you mean, dear. White Swallow was the name given to me by my adopted Zuni tribe when I was dating Mincing Buffalo, the chieftain of the tribe.

[Bug Snot]

I don't know what you mean, dear. White Swallow was the name given to me by my adopted Zuni tribe when I was dating Mincing Buffalo, the chieftain of the tribe.