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Eating Dessert Before Food Might Help You Eat Less

by Anne Trueman on Sep 24 2012 10:51 AM
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A lot of people have a sweet tooth and love eating desserts. Here is some good news for people loving sweets.

Individuals who are conscious of their health and fitness should pay attention to the large amounts of unhealthy foods they consume. Eating dessert prior to main course food can help you eat less.

A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, claims that eating desserts prior to actual meal can help you control your intake of food.

Joseph P. Redden of the University of Minnesota and Kelly L. Haws of Texas A&M University mentioned, “Although self-control is typically viewed as a battle between willpower and desire, consumers can’t rely entirely on willpower to control their eating. They also need to create situations that will make them lose interest in food. One way is to keep better track of the quantity of unhealthy foods they eat.”

Different people have different habits. Some individuals are efficient in controlling their food cravings while others are unable to do so and indulge in over-eating of unhealthy foods such as candies and cookies.

The researchers have discovered that those consumers who can control their diet intake eat less unhealthy foods because their appetite is satiated soon.

Another important point that they noticed was that consumers having weak self-control were able to develop better control on paying attention to the amount of unhealthy and junk foods they consumed as paying more attention resulted in giving better appetite satisfaction.

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In an interesting research, some consumers were asked to consume either an unhealthy or healthy food. Some of the consumers were asked to count the number of times ‘they swallowed while eating snack’.

It was seen that in spite of having a weak self-control, those who counted the number of times they swallowed while eating were satisfied easily than those who did not count.

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It was concluded that keeping a record and close monitoring of how much they consumed, helped consumers behave like individuals with high self-control.

The scientists said, “Dieters should focus on the quantity of unhealthy foods but not the quantity of healthy foods. Monitoring healthy foods could actually be counterproductive to the goal of eating a healthier diet. So the secret to success is knowing when to monitor your eating.”

The actual key to losing weight and staying fit is to have good self-control, taking pre-dinner snack and by counting your swallows. Remember to eat dessert before your dinner.

Source-Medindia


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