You Tend to Pay More when You're Craving Junk Food

People were willing to pay more for unhealthy foods and higher portion sizes of the craved items too, reveals a new study.

Craving can make people pay more for unhealthy foods to satisfy those cravings. A food craving is more like an addiction and people tend to pay more for higher portion sizes, reveals a new study.//

The research, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), identifies an obstacle to healthy living.

Fast Food Addiction in Teenagers
Food addiction is a growing threat among teenagers. Find out how to combat the problem with preventive tips and strategies for overcoming food addiction.

‘When people crave for unhealthy junk food, they tend to pay more to satisfy those cravings.’

"Our results indicate that even if people strive to eat healthier, craving could overshadow the importance of health by boosting the value of tempting, unhealthy foods relative to healthier options," explains Anna Konova, a postdoctoral researcher in NYU's Center for Neural Science and the paper's lead author.

"Craving , which is pervasive in daily life, may nudge our choices in very specific ways that help us acquire those things that made us feel good in the past--even if those things may not be consistent with our current health goals."

The study's other co-authors were Kenway Louie, an NYU research assistant professor, and Paul Glimcher, an NYU professor and director of NYU's Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Decision Making.

The Global Obesity Epidemic Could Be Explained by Our Addiction to Unhealthy Foods
High-fructose corn syrup can cause behavioural reactions in rats similar to those produced by drugs of abuse such as cocaine, according to new research.

There is growing interest across several sectors--marketing, psychology, economics, and medicine--in understanding how our psychological states and physiological needs affect our behavior as consumers. Of particular concern is craving, which has long been recognized as a state of mind that contributes to addiction and, in recent years, to eating disorders and obesity.

Yet, the researchers note, little is known about the nature of craving and its impact on our choices and behavior.

Unhealthy Foods and Drinks Portrayed in a Positive Light
A new research has found that unhealthy foods and drinks which are common in kid's TV programmes, are frequently portrayed in a positive light

In their PNAS study, the scientists conducted a series of experiments that asked subjects to indicate how much they'd pay for certain snack foods after they developed a craving for one of them--significant differences in a desire for a specific food item (e.g., a Snickers or granola bar) before and after exposure to the item constituted cravings.

The results showed that people were willing to pay more for the same exact snack food item if they were just exposed to it and asked to recall specific memories of consumption of this item, relative to before this exposure. Notably, this occurred even if the study's subjects were hungry before and after the exposure, suggesting that craving and hunger are partly distinct experiences.

Increasing Price of Unhealthy Foods can Inculcate Healthy Eating
Having a good strategy in place can be the most intelligent way to find solutions to problems.

"In other words, craving Snickers does not make you hungrier; it makes you desire Snickers specifically," explains Louie, who adds that there was also a spillover effect as it applied, to some degree, to similar food items that subjects were never exposed to (e.g., other chocolate, nut, and caramel candy bars).

Moreover, the researchers found stronger effects--bigger changes in the willingness to pay for an item the subjects craved--when the items were higher-calorie, higher-fat/sugar content foods, such as a chocolate bar or cheese puffs, relative to healthier options (e.g., a granola bar).

Finally, the experiments revealed a connection among craving, portion, and price. That is, people were willing to pay disproportionately more for higher portion sizes of the craved items.

"It appears that craving boosts or multiplies the economic value of the craved food," says Konova.

Source-Eurekalert