Grabbing Food With Your Non-Dominant Hand Makes You Eat Less: Brilliant or Bogus?
SodaHead Living
2011/09/09 21:39:01
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Want to shed a few pounds? It's easy! All you have to do is use your less dominant hand to grab the munchies. Why didn't they tell us this before?!
According to researchers, reaching for a snack with your non-dominant hand while doing something mindless -- like watching TV or a movie -- makes you snack less.
How come? Because when we eat a snack in a specific environment, our brain associates the food with the environment. So when you switch your normal eating game-plan up, it forces the brain to react.
"When we've repeatedly eaten a particular food in a particular environment, our brain comes to associate the food with that environment and makes us keep eating as long as those environmental cues are present," David Neal, study researcher and a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, said.
In an experiment, snackers who ate with their non-dominant hand ate much less popcorn when at the movies than those who ate with their dominant hand.
Do you think this unique way of dieting is brilliant -- or pretty bogus?
According to researchers, reaching for a snack with your non-dominant hand while doing something mindless -- like watching TV or a movie -- makes you snack less.
How come? Because when we eat a snack in a specific environment, our brain associates the food with the environment. So when you switch your normal eating game-plan up, it forces the brain to react.
"When we've repeatedly eaten a particular food in a particular environment, our brain comes to associate the food with that environment and makes us keep eating as long as those environmental cues are present," David Neal, study researcher and a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, said.
In an experiment, snackers who ate with their non-dominant hand ate much less popcorn when at the movies than those who ate with their dominant hand.
Do you think this unique way of dieting is brilliant -- or pretty bogus?
Top Opinion
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JohnFitzgeral12 2011/09/10 04:49:02
After spending 2 months living in China, I found that eating with chopsticks is much slower than eating with a fork and knife. Especially for me, someone who is not skilled at eating with chopsticks. Since I ate slower I ended up eating less - I would not shovel food into my mouth mindlessly and I tended to stop long before I reached the 'overfull" point.
I think that eating with your non-dominant hand doesn't feel like second nature to most of us (much like chopsticks don't feel like second nature to me) and thus the time required to feed yourself increases. Other studies have shown that eating more slowly decreases the amount of food intake - I personally found this to be true in my case.
People have different interests. They are interested in researching that kind of thing. It's hypocritical to criticize people for not doing something when you're not doing it either.
And I can understand that this study doesn't affect your life but it sure is not useless. Little by little we get to understand our bodies better, thanks to "useless research".
If someone really wants to eat a whole cake, they'll eat it no matter what. But they will not be able to grab the same amount of cake with both hands. One of the hands makes it faster for the cake to disappear than the other.
But when people are used to finish their lunch at the same time a certain tv show ends, they will feel full at the end of the show, because of the habit. And if one hands makes it slower to eat a certain amount, they may just stop eating as their tv show ends, because they're used to it and their body tells them they're full.
And I think that they would use the hand that is closer to the popcorn. But they might use their dominant hand. It depends of what feels easier. I would have to see what people usually do x) Why do you ask?