You might seek a bit of comfort food for the sake of your mental wellbeing sometimes, but according to a new study, it’s the fact that it’s high calorie, rather than how good it tastes, that makes you overindulge when you get bad news or perceive a potential tough time ahead and this can further affect your wellness by causing weight gain.
According to reports from the journal Psychological Science, bad news makes you connect to a survival ‘carpe diem’ (seize the day) instinct, where you value higher calorie foods. The study was conducted by the University of Miami, who found that when they subconsciously primed participants with messages such as ‘live for today’, these people ate nearly 40% more food than those who they subjected to neutral messages.
‘The findings of this study come at a time when our country is slowly recovering from the onslaught of negative presidential campaign ads chalked with topics such as the weak economy, gun violence, war, deep political divides, just to name a few problem areas,’ Professor Juliano Laran said. ‘Now that we know this sort of messaging causes people to seek out more calories out of a survival instinct, it would be wise for those looking to kick off a healthier new year to tune out news for a while.’
The results of the study also showed that when the ‘tough times’ group was then told the food they were sampling was low-calorie, they consumed roughly 25% less of it. The researchers believe this is because if you perceive that food resources are scarce, you place a higher value on food with more calories. Even though the groups were given identical foods, the one that was labelled as higher in calories was perceived as worth more. According to Professor Laran, ‘It is clear from the studies that taste was not what caused the reactions, it was a longing for calories.’
He concluded by saying ‘These findings could have positive implications for individuals in the health care field, government campaigns on nutrition, and companies promoting wellness.’ He added a warning that you should ‘certainly beware of savvy food marketers bearing bad news.’
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