According to research findings from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the best way to prevent pigging out and indulging in junk-food cravings is to not attempt total resistance. Instead, it's recommended that we postpone our indulgences.
Using this method allows us to resist and be gracious to ourselves at the same time. According to the study, delaying your "craving submissions" works because we're not likely to eat those junk foods later after all.
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So, what does this mean?
When people are faced with a sugary or fatty food temptation, they experience a tug-of-war between eating (pleasure) and not eating (restraint and deprivation). This is because eating is a natural human tendency, whereas restraint is unnatural for humans and is, therefore, more challenging for us.
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In fact, restraint often leads to overconsumption in the future, because it increases your desire and reduces your willpower.
The postponement gives in to the natural tendency of wanting and having the pleasure, just not at that particular moment.
It tricks the mind and body into thinking it will have that pleasure, which enables people to keep the temptation at arm's length at the time of peak desire for the temptation. This allows the mind and body to cool off.
But won't you just end up eating the treat, well, later? Unlikely, the study found.
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"When people don't indulge in the temptation, the temptation seems less and less desirable in the future, enabling people to continue postponing the pleasure," research says.
To come to this conclusion, researchers gave student volunteers bowls of M&Ms. Some were told to eat as many as they wanted, others were told not to eat any and a third group was told they could eat some later.
The researchers then told the students the experiment was over, and offered the M&Ms once again. Guess who ate the most? The group who was initially deprived. And the least? The group who had been told to wait and have some ... later.
Keep in mind, though, that if you set a specific time or day to indulge in your temptation, your mind and body become programmed to actually eat it at that time. "When late afternoon comes around, say, an alarm bell will go off reminding you to eat. But if you postpone to a vague time (later!), that goal of eating is not reactivated.
The research found that by moving even the thought of consumption to the future, the goal of eating and indulging is no longer relevant to the mind and body, so they simply do not care and the craving naturally dissipates.
In fact, research theorizes that employing this strategy can actually build your willpower and help curb your cravings in the first place.
When the desire for pleasure is not reinforced by the consumption of pleasure, the body learns that the temptation is not all that pleasurable and exciting, findings reported.
So go ahead, have some M&Ms! Just not at this very moment.
Jasmine Browley holds an MA in journalism from Columbia College Chicago, and has contributed to Ebony, Jet and MADE Magazine among others. So, clearly, she knows some stuff. Follow her digital journey @JasmineBrowley.
