Want that cake? Our resistance to snacks 'weakens after midday'
WANT your cake and eat it? Then wait until late afternoon.
Our resistance to sweet food wanes after midday
New research shows our resistance to snacks weakens dramatically after midday.
The longer the day goes on, the more likely the human brain puts cake, crisps, burger and pizzas into the same category as nice things such as rainbows and holidays.
In the morning, the determination not to be unhealthy or give in to temptation means the brain classifies these treats with negative thoughts such as sickness, pain, abuse, fear and death!
Researchers from Australia's Flinders University School of Psychology carried out a psychological experiment called an IAT - Implicit Association Test - on 304 women aged 17-25.
Every hour from midday, groups were shown images and words which they had to react to with either positive or negative scores.
The words included death, pain, abuse as well as holidays, rainbows, peace and love. Mingled in amongst them were crisps, chocolate, burgers, pizzas and cake.
The non-food words were generally easy to sort as either positive or negative but as the day went on the foods gradually changed from the negative to the positive compartments.
The researchers used evaluation questionaires throughout to record how hungry the women were and analysed which ones had previously said they were watching their weight.
In the morning our brains relate sweet treats to negative things like pain and even death
But as the day went on, most showed a greater inclination to associate junk food and snacks with positive rather than negative imagery.
The researchers believe a combination of the human body and mind as well as tradition and culture play a part.
Just as people rarely have alcohol in the morning and may smoke more at night, so they also associate unhealthy foods with later times of the day.
But also the body and mind may both start the day determined to eat healthily but gradually that resistance wears down as the day goes on, a phenomenon the researchers call 'ego depletion.'
Later on in the day participants related treats to more positive imagery
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The report, for the journal Food Quality and Preference, added: “Time of day correlated with implicit evaluations of unhealthy snack food.
Participating in treat eating later in the day could be explained by ego depletion
“Individuals who participated later in the day tended to implicitly evaluate unhealthy snack food as more positive than those who had participated earlier in the day.”
It added: “A more positive implicit evaluation of unhealthy foods later in the day could be attributable to learned appropriateness standards for eating snack foods later in the day compared to the morning.
“Second, the association between participating later in the day and a more positive implicit food evaluation could also be explained by ego depletion as a result of exerting self-control throughout the day.”