Why people choose healthy foods when happy.
Emotional eating is something we’re all familiar with. Happy or sad, up or down, there’s a plethora of media in the world that tells us our moods often dictate the foods we choose to eat.
A study by University of Delaware associate professor Meryl Gardner finds that there’s more to stress eating than simply emotion and in fact, thinking about the future may help people make better food choices.
Gardner tried to find out why when someone is in a bad mood will they choose to eat junk food and why when someone is in a good mood will they make healthier food choices?
“In an evolutionary sense, it makes sense that when we feel uncomfortable or are in a bad mood, we know something is wrong and focus on what is close to us physically and what is close in time, in the here and now,” said Gardner.
The researchers conducted four laboratory experiments to examine whether people in a positive mood would prefer healthy food to indulgent food for long-term health and well-being benefits and those in a negative mood would prefer indulgent foods to healthy foods for immediate, hedonistic mood management benefits.
The findings of all the studies combined contribute to current research by demonstrating that individuals can select healthy or indulgent foods depending on their moods, an area previously under-represented in past clinical research on the role of healthy foods.
The findings also indicate the integral aspect of the time horizon, showing that individuals in positive moods who make healthier food choices are often thinking more about future health benefits than those in negative mood s, who focus more on the immediate taste and sensory experience.
So, the choice is clear, whether to eat a particular food and become well (may or may not happen) or be emotionally happy first and subsequently we start eating healthy foods....wow !
So, how to be emotionally happy ? (so that you may start eating healthy foods !)...1.Sustain & Care for all people regardless of their caste/creed/color.2.Be inexhaustible in readiness to teach others.3.Meet evil forces before they become a reality.4.Have an open minded approach(exclude your personal biases/prejudices).5.Live in the 'here&now'.6.Be modest & humble...well, the recipe for good eating is ready, any takers for this dish ? more
A study by University of Delaware associate professor Meryl Gardner finds that there’s more to stress eating than simply emotion and in fact, thinking about the future may help people make better food choices.
Gardner tried to find out why when someone is in a bad mood will they choose to eat junk food and why when someone is in a good mood will they make healthier food choices?
“In an evolutionary sense, it makes sense that when we feel uncomfortable or are in a bad mood, we know something is wrong and focus on what is close to us physically and what is close in time, in the here and now,” said Gardner.
The researchers conducted four laboratory experiments to examine whether people in a positive mood would prefer healthy food to indulgent food for long-term health and well-being benefits and those in a negative mood would prefer indulgent foods to healthy foods for immediate, hedonistic mood management benefits.
The findings of all the studies combined contribute to current research by demonstrating that individuals can select healthy or indulgent foods depending on their moods, an area previously under-represented in past clinical research on the role of healthy foods.
The findings also indicate the integral aspect of the time horizon, showing that individuals in positive moods who make healthier food choices are often thinking more about future health benefits than those in negative mood s, who focus more on the immediate taste and sensory experience.
So, the choice is clear, whether to eat a particular food and become well (may or may not happen) or be emotionally happy first and subsequently we start eating healthy foods....wow !
So, how to be emotionally happy ? (so that you may start eating healthy foods !)...1.Sustain & Care for all people regardless of their caste/creed/color.2.Be inexhaustible in readiness to teach others.3.Meet evil forces before they become a reality.4.Have an open minded approach(exclude your personal biases/prejudices).5.Live in the 'here&now'.6.Be modest & humble...well, the recipe for good eating is ready, any takers for this dish ? more
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Thanks Raja Sahib. Looks like reviewing all old posts sitting in the US ! Lot of time to spare and to review and enjoy old posts! Thanks. more
Sep 23
But almost every one eating junk food is always eating it happily and probably enjoying it too! Otherwise all the junk food shops would close down, if everyone eating junk food have to eat that crying and weeping !! more
Mar 05
junk food eating is linked to a carbohydrate desire which seems to satisfy some area in the brain and makes us go for this 'pleasure' in the hope it will give you happiness; but what it does is seal off your true emotional links...well, it is a matter of what habit you give yourself over to...."health is not the absence of disease but a state of positive health" more
Mar 03
