How to kill food cravings? Just a bite or the full portion

Abstract

A food craving is an intense desire for a food, which is difficult to resist. Studying food cravings is important, because food cravings influence snacking behavior and are believed to contribute to excessive eating and in this way to obesity. The experiment reported here explores the impact of providing participants with ‘just a bite’ of desirable, craving‐inducing foods versus a large amount of these foods. The expectation is that the portion size of a desirable food will impact craving tendencies and appetite at different points in time. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions where they were presented with small versus large portions of chocolate chips, apple pie, and potato chips. Participants were asked to report their appetite and cravings for those foods before eating, immediately after eating, and 20 minutes after eating. Compared to before eating, cravings were significantly reduced 20 minutes after eating, all Fs > 16.2, ps <.001. Compared to before eating, appetite was also significantly reduced 20 minutes after eating, F > 6.5, p =.002. Importantly, these effects were consistent across the two conditions, ps >.44, suggesting that simply eating just a bite of food, rather than full of food, is enough to reduce food cravings.Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship of second author within the 7th European Community Framework Programme.