If you’ve been snacking more than ever during lockdown, you’re not alone. That's why people are referring to their weight gain as the COVID-19 as in 19 pounds. So if you want to steer yourself away from the less healthy food options you desire, new research offers a trick that may help.
A new study from the University of Minnesota asked 244 young adults to pick between “healthy” and “unhealthy” food items on a computer screen. Some of them watched a short video about the benefits of healthy eating beforehand. Then some were told to speak in the first person, as in “What do I want?” while others were told to use third person and call themselves by their names, as in, “Jane, what do you want?”
And it turns out, the ones who used their names were more likely to ditch the junk food and choose the healthier option and more so if they’d watched the video first. Celina Furman one of the study's authors says "Non-dieters made healthier choices when using distanced self-talk, regardless of whether they were primed with a health goal or not. These findings suggest that distanced self-talk may constitute a self-control strategy that encourages healthier eating."