False
Memories May Work as Diet Aid
Raising
the prospect of weight loss through mind control, researchers
report they may have successfully planted false memories about
bad food experiences into the minds of ordinary people, according
to a report in the journal Social Cognition.
 Only
about a third of those tested showed any indication of actually
falling for the ruse, and there is no evidence that the
new memories will make anyone actually alter what they eat.
Even
so, the findings raise plenty of interesting questions, says
study co-author and memory specialist Dr. Elizabeth Loftus,
a professor of psychology at the University of California at
Irvine.
"If
this would work for fattening foods, we may be on the brink
of a new approach to dieting," she says.
Power
of Food-Related Suggestion
In
the study, Dr. Loftus and her colleagues tested the power of
food-related suggestion.
In
one experiment in the study, the researchers asked 180 undergraduates
about their food preferences. Each student ranked 62 different
foods on a scale of one to five.
Later,
the students returned to view a "profile," supposedly produced
by a computer, of their food preferences as children. Half were
told they had gotten sick from dill pickles as kids, and the
other half were told hard-boiled eggs did the same thing.
Then,
the students took several more tests that, among other things,
asked about their early food experiences and which foods they
would eat at a barbecue.
After
analyzing the new round of test and survey results, researchers
found that 25 percent of the students in the pickle group appeared
to think - thanks to the planted memories - that they had indeed
gotten sick from the food as children. The number was 31 percent
among students told they got sick from hard-boiled eggs.
The
planted memories also affected the willingness of the susceptible
subjects to eat the food at a barbecue or even eat a related
food (such as egg salad).
Most
of the subjects did not fall for the fake memories, but
previous research suggests those susceptible to implanted memories
may share traits in common, Dr. Loftus notes.
"If
you're somebody who tends to have lapses in memory and attention,
you might be more susceptible," she explains. People who are
adept at visual imagery may be more prone to suggestion, too.
The
next step is to figure out whether implanted memories would
actually change behavior and make people eat differently, Dr.
Loftus says. "We'd like to continue the experiment on and get
some handle on how long the suggestion will last."
The
power of suggestion might not work for every food, however.
A previous study found that people could not be convinced
to avoid potato chips, perhaps because they had plenty of experience
with the food, Dr. Loftus explains.
Jeannie
Moloo, a spokeswoman for the American
Dietetic Association, says the findings are intriguing,
especially considering the long-lasting effects of memories
about food.
"If
you grow up in an environment where foods are talked about negatively,
or you've experienced getting sick with a particular food, that
can carry into adulthood," she says. "The concern is if it leads
to the exclusion of an entire food group in the diet. That potentially
may be a problem."
Always
consult your physician for more information.
|
A
small new European study adds to the growing body of evidence
that exercise can stave off mental decline in older people,
according to a report in the medical journal Neurology.
The
290 participants, all men, were between the ages of 70 and 90
when the study began in 1990. They were asked about such physical
activities as walking, gardening, bicycling, and sports.
Ten
years later, the researchers found that the reduction in mental
ability, as measured by a standardized test, was 2.6 times greater
in the men who reduced their activity by an hour or more a day
compared to those who maintained their activity level.
The
loss of mental ability was directly related to a reduction in
activity, the researchers found. The decline was 3.6 times greater
in men with the lowest level of activity compared to those who
were more active. No decline in mental ability was found in
men who stepped up their physical activity.
The
results are similar to those of a study done with younger American
women, says Jennifer Weuve, a research fellow at the Harvard
School of Public Health, who reported the results of that clinical
trial in September.
There
were some differences between the two studies, Weuve said, such
as the kind of activity that was performed. The European men
did more bicycling - two to three hours a week - while "for
our women, the primary activity was walking," she says.
The
greatest difference was in age. The US women Weuve studied were
in their late 50s and early 60s, decades younger than the European
men, "at an age when they were unlikely to be affected by a
decline in cognition," she notes.
One
possible interpretation of the European study is that a loss
of mental ability led to reduced physical activity, Weuve says.
But the more likely explanation is that physical activity is
good for the brain as well as the body.
"The
evidence certainly points that way," she says.
There
are two theories, not necessarily exclusive, to explain the
beneficial mental effects of exercise, Weuve says.
One
is that physical activity increases the flow of blood to the
brain, just as it improves circulation to the heart and the
rest of the body. The other is that activity stimulates the
growth of nerve cells in the hippocampus, the region of the
brain involved in memory.
Whatever
the explanation, "the risks of being active are fairly small,"
and the European study indicates that it's never too late to
get benefit from physical activity, Weuve says.
Bill
Thies, vice president for medical and scientific affairs at
the Alzheimer's Association, says
the new study "fits into a bigger body of evidence where virtually
all the studies [involving exercise] point in the same direction."
Always
consult your physician for more information. |
