Traditional diets have a tendency to be nothing more than short-lived ‘fads’ that you may or may not stick to for a couple of weeks. They are often restricting, hard to manage, and require calorie counting and other tedious tracking methods.
Luckily, Carnegie Mellon University may have found a new way to shed some pounds as well as eating more health conscious foods, in a simple, unexpected way: time-delayed eating.
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What is time-delayed eating you ask? It is simply, “when there is a significant delay between the time a person ordered their food and the time they planned on eating it”. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University discovered that when this kind of time-delayed eating is practiced, we are much more likely to choose lower-calorie meals.
Interestingly, researchers found that participants were not choosing to order less consciously; in fact, most had no idea they were choosing lower-calorie options whatsoever.
Even more interesting, researchers found that the participants being less hungry at the time they ordered their meal was only responsible for a small part of this healthier food choice. Dr. VanEpps, a post-doctoral student who led this research, believes that people have a “bias toward the present” that alters how we assess the present moment, and that this bias is the main catalyst for this food choice phenomenon.
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According to Dr. VanEpps, “If a decision is going to be implemented immediately, we just care about the immediate consequences, and we discount the long-term costs and benefits. In the case of food, we care about what’s happening right now – like how tasty it is – but discount the long-term costs of an unhealthy meal.”
On the other hand, however, when you take the time and care or order a meal ahead of time, you are “more evenly weighing the short-term and long-term costs and benefits. You still care about the taste but you’re more able to exert self-control.”
In one of the experiments of this research, 394 health care company employees were instructed to place their lunch orders at least 30 minutes before they wanted to eat their meal. They were given the option to place their order as early as 7:00am for lunch service between 11:00am and 2pm. Some ordered their lunch up to 5 hours ahead of time, while others procrastinated and barely made the 30 minute deadline.
The results of this experiment, as well as the other two experiments included in this research that was published in the Journal of Marketing Research, clearly showed that the more hours ahead of time people planned their meals, the fewer calories they ordered and consumed. In fact, the participants ordered 38 fewer calories for every hour in advance they placed their meal order. That can seriously add up over time.
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The main caveats to this time-delayed eating method are, first off, that it may not be as effective for celebratory meals or ‘date-nights’, and secondly, that it requires an added level of organization and planning-ahead that may be unlikely or impossible for some people.
However, this really is a useful tool for schools and businesses who want to encourage healthful eating, or for individuals to begin meal planning. You can also start doing your grocery shopping online, therefore deciding on your groceries several days ahead of time, or even stocking your desk at work ahead of time with healthy snacks such as fruits and nuts to avoid that box of donuts your coworker brought in…again (yeah, you know who you are!).
Curated Article from:
New York Times Health
