Did you know there’s a recent study on how watching food videos can actually reduce food cravings? It’s fascinating! Let me fill you in on the details.
A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports explores the impact of immersive food videos, such as mukbang, on individuals’ cravings and eating habits.
Conducted by researchers from NTU Singapore, the study aimed to understand whether watching people consume large quantities of food would lead to increased cravings or unhealthy eating behaviors like binge eating.
How To Reduce Food Cravings? Watch Videos Of Others Eating!
The study involved 317 participants, representative of Singapore’s diverse population. One group watched an immersive video of people eating M&M’s, while a control group watched a repetitive video of a coin being inserted into a laundry machine.
Results revealed that those who watched the candy-eating video experienced a significant reduction in their candy cravings, consuming about one-third less candy compared to the control group.
This reduction was attributed to habituation, a psychological mechanism where repeated exposure to stimuli leads to reduced responses.
According to Benjamin Li Junting, an assistant professor at NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and the study’s leader, these findings suggest that viewing food-related immersive videos can induce satiation and decrease post-viewing food consumption.
This could be beneficial for individuals looking to control their appetites or manage compulsive eating.
Furthermore, the study explored the impact of scent cues alongside visual cues. When participants watched the same video with the scent of chocolate diffused, they consumed 11% fewer M&M’s than when there was no scent.
This demonstrated that combining olfactory and visual stimuli can enhance the feeling of satiation.
The researchers plan to conduct further studies to understand the long-term effects of immersive videos on eating behaviors. They also intend to explore the influence of different types of scents and the duration of scent exposure.
In summary, this study suggests that watching immersive food videos, like mukbang, can reduce cravings and food consumption due to habituation.
Additionally, combining scent cues with visual cues can further enhance this effect. These findings may have implications for interventions aimed at curbing compulsive eating behaviors and portraying healthier eating habits in media.
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