Training in cognitive strategies reduces eating and improves food choice

Abstract

Obesity rates continue to rise alarmingly, with dire health implications. One contributing factor is that individuals frequently forgo healthy foods in favor of inexpensive, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. One important mechanism underlying these choices is food craving: Craving increases with exposure to unhealthy foods (and food cues, such as advertisements) and prospectively predicts eating and weight. Prior work has shown that cognitive regulation strategies that emphasize the negative consequences of unhealthy foods reduce craving. In Studies 1 and 2, we show that cognitive strategies also increase craving for healthy foods by emphasizing their positive benefits, and change food valuation (willingness to pay) for both healthy and unhealthy foods. In Studies 3 and 4, we demonstrate that brief training in cognitive strategies (“Regulation of Craving Training”; ROC-T) increases subsequent healthy (vs. unhealthy) food choices. This was striking because this change in food choices generalized to nontrained items. Importantly, in Study 5, we show that brief training in cognitive strategies also reduces food consumption by 93–121 calories. Consumed calories correlated with changes in food choice. Finally, in Study 6, we show that the training component of ROC-T is necessary, above and beyond any effect of framing. Across all studies (NTOTAL = 1,528), we find that cognitive strategies substantially change craving and food valuation, and that training in cognitive strategies improves food choices by 5.4–11.2% and reduces unhealthy eating, including in obese individuals. Thus, these findings have important theoretical, public health, and clinical implications for obesity prevention and treatment.

Effects of Cognitive Strategies on Neural Food Cue Reactivity in Adults with Overweight/Obesity

“…Therefore, it is plausible that these populations may have markedly disparate responses to such strategies, both behaviorally and neurally. Previous work has not found any moderating effects of BMI in use of various cognitive strategies ; however, further work in larger samples with a range in BMI, weight‐loss history, and dieting status is needed.…”

Laboratory‐based interventions targeting food craving: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…For the food intake meta‐analysis, 43 studies were included with 54 comparisons of effects, leading to a total of 1565 participants in active intervention conditions and 1570 control participants, plus 86 participants undergoing both conditions in a crossover design. Thirteen comparisons were categorized to the intervention category cue exposure (n = 6 in vivo and n = 7 in sensu) and 12 to cognitive regulation strategies (n = 3 acceptance, n = 7 reappraisal, and n = 2 distraction), and 29 comparisons were assigned to cognitive control training (n = 16 ICT, n = 5 AAT, and n = 8 ABM). No studies were found measuring food intake after neurofeedback or biofeedback training.…”

“…Of the controlled studies, six ESs were categorized to vivo cue exposure, 39 studies to cognitive regulation strategies (n = 6 acceptance, n = 13 reappraisal, n = 7 suppression, and n = 13 distraction), 13 studies to cognitive control training (n = 3 ICT, n = 4 AAT, and n = 6 ABM), and six to neurofeedback or biofeedback interventions …”

Multivariate neural signatures for health neuroscience: Assessing spontaneous regulation during food choice

“…Cue-induced food craving is a major driver of unhealthy eating behavior and weight gain (Boswell & Kober, 2016), so we focus on craving regulation as a promising intervention target (Boswell et al, 2018;Stice et al, 2015). Specifically, we focus on cognitive reappraisal, the process of reframing a stimulus to change its affective meaning (Gross, 1998).…”