Want to stay healthy - then place fruits in a clear
bowl within arm’s reach, so that you could help yourself whenever you
felt the urge to eat.
The new study says that when
fruits are within reach, people are more likely to eat them. Greater
visibility of fruit increases their intake, but the same does not hold
true for vegetables.
Researchers Gregory J. Privitera
and Heather E. Creary, both from St. Bonaventure University, Olean,
U.S., tested a total of 96 college students by placing apple slices and
carrot cuts in either clear or opaque bowls at a table close at arms’
length or at a table two metres away.
Participants
watched as the food was taken out of its packaging and were told that
they were welcome to eat it, the journal Environment and Behaviour
reports.
After leaving the students alone with the
food for 10 minutes, the researchers found that when apples and carrots
were left close to the participants, those healthy foods were more
likely to be eaten, according to St. Bonaventure statement.
Interestingly,
making the food more visible to participants by placing them in clear
bowls increased the intake of the apples but not the carrots. The
researchers said this might be due to the fact that fruit is sweeter and
may induce more motivation to eat than bitter-tasting vegetables.
“Apples,
but not carrots, have sugar, which is known to stimulate brain reward
regions that induce a ‘wanting’ for foods that contain sugar,” the
authors wrote. “Hence, apple slices may be more visually appealing than
carrots.”
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