Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Think yourself slim

I think my posts in the past about TMS have shown that I believe the mind is a massive influence on our health.  We have only begun to scratch the surface of the importance of our attitudes, our subconscious and our thoughts.

Here is an interesting study that I came across via the New Scientist.  

IF YOU want to lose weight, convince yourself that everything you eat is highly calorific. It could lower your levels of a hunger hormone, potentially suppressing your appetite.

Alia Crum at Yale University and her colleagues gave 46 healthy volunteers the same 380-calorie milkshake but were told it was either a sensible, low-calorie choice or an indulgent, high-calorie one. The team also measured levels of ghrelin - a hormone released by the stomach when we are hungry - before and after participants drank the shake.

Ghrelin levels have been shown to spike half an hour before mealtimes and return to normal after eating.

Volunteers who thought they had indulged showed significantly greater drops in ghrelin levels than those who thought they had consumed less. The authors suggest that merely thinking that one has eaten something unhealthy can quell hunger pangs and perhaps help curb overeating


Here is the abstract of the paper:

Mind over milkshakes: Mindsets, not just nutrients, determine ghrelin response.

Objective: To test whether physiological satiation as measured by the gut peptide ghrelin may vary depending on the mindset in which one approaches consumption of food.
Methods: On 2 separate occasions, participants (n = 46) consumed a 380-calorie milkshake under the pretense that it was either a 620-calorie “indulgent” shake or a 140-calorie “sensible” shake. Ghrelin was measured via intravenous blood samples at 3 time points: baseline (20 min), anticipatory (60 min), and postconsumption (90 min). During the first interval (between 20 and 60 min) participants were asked to view and rate the (misleading) label of the shake. During the second interval (between 60 and 90 min) participants were asked to drink and rate the milkshake.
Results: The mindset of indulgence produced a dramatically steeper decline in ghrelin after consuming the shake, whereas the mindset of sensibility produced a relatively flat ghrelin response. Participants' satiety was consistent with what they believed they were consuming rather than the actual nutritional value of what they consumed.
Conclusions: The effect of food consumption on ghrelin may be psychologically mediated, and mindset meaningfully affects physiological responses to food

4 comments:

DancinPete said...

I'd wager that its impossible to fool yourself into believing something that you know is untrue. Hence, the need for double blinding in studies.
No matter how much I want to believe in Santa, I can't fool myself into believing he's real. (the easter bunny on the other hand is still up for debate)

Marc said...

Hi Chris,

Have you ever heard/read the book "Spontaneous Evolution"??
By Bruce Lipton.

An eye opening book about the science behind our thoughts.

Lots of classics out there about the importacne of our "thoughts" but this book takes it to a whole other level.

Cheers,

Marc

Anonymous said...

Yeah but if you read the whole paper you see that there was absolutely no difference in satiety. Hunger is more complicated then just hormones.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/mind-over-milkshakes-mindsets-not-just-nutrients-determine-ghrelin-response-research-review.html

beetlebones said...

scientist are the most backward people on the planet!they are just starting to prove to themselves what spiritualists have known since time began,we are co-creators, what we think is what we create,we can create whatever we can visualize and we do!if you can have the presence of mind to imagine yourself exercising for a length of time ,you will get the same results as doing the exercise physically.
scientists need to learn to look inward and stop trying to find the answers outside of themselves,answers only lead to more questions!.they have systematically held back human evolution,the fact that they believed that the brain had no plasticity, has held the world back as a whole, for centuries.
only now is the light going on in thier self deluded minds ,what more enlightened individuals(non scientists)have known as in intuitively true,only when we believe that science has the answers does doubt get in the way of how we really are,GODS AND GODDESSES!, ONE DAY SCIENTISTS WILL DISSAPEAR UP THEIR OWN ARSES!