Poziom trudności: B1
Źródło: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260424-diet-why-enjoying-your-food-is-key-to-weight-loss
Why the key to losing weight may be enjoying your food
It’s not just what you eat, but how you think about it that matters. The mind-body connectionzwiązek między psychiką a ciałem can shape our appetiteapetyt because our expectationoczekiwanie of what we've eaten influences the brain's perceptions of hunger and satiationsytość.
If confronted withpostawiony przed, skonfrontowany z a delectablewyśmienity, bardzo smaczny chocolate bartabliczka czekolady or a low-calorieniskokaloryczny, naturally sweetenednaturalnie słodzony alternative, which would you pickwybrać?
Most of us may rationallyracjonalnie know we should pick the latterdrugi z dwóch wymienionych, but a tasty treat is incredibly hard to avoid, making it hard for individualsosoby who are trying to lose weightschudnąć to maintainutrzymywać a diet.
We're wiredzaprogramowani / tak po prostu mamy to cravebardzo pragnąć / mieć silną ochotę na energy densebogate w energię / bardzo kaloryczne, sweet treats, partly because our early ancestorsprzodkowie once dependedzależała / opierała się na on it.
And to add to this challengedodatkowo utrudniać tę sytuację, our environment is filled with high-caloriewysokokaloryczny, ultra-processedmocno przetworzony foods, which when we do eat them, can increasezwiększać feelings of guiltpoczucie winy around our eating habitsnawyki żywieniowe.
"Ultra-processedultraprzetworzony products are essentiallyzasadniczo; w gruncie rzeczy like being at a heavy metal concertkoncert heavy metalowy. They're designed to drown everything else outzagłuszać wszystko inne. And it's really hard for folks to tune in towsłuchiwać się w / zwracać uwagę na the subtlesubtelny; delikatny classical music of a fruit or a vegetable," says Ashley Gearhardt, a professorprofesor of psychologypsychologia at the University of Michigan.
But research points to the idea that to maintainutrzymywać / zachowywać a healthier weightzdrowsza masa ciała, we shouldn't only focus on what we eat – but our mindsetnastawienie / sposób myślenia around food. In fact, there are health benefitskorzyści zdrowotne to finding pleasure in eating, preciselydokładnie / właśnie because the expectationoczekiwanie of what we've eaten goes on to shape how hungry we are.
In a now well-knownobecnie dobrze znany experiment publishedopublikowany 15 years ago, a group of scientistsnaukowcy found that what we believewierzyć we are eating can affectwpływać na how our body responds.
A team led bypod kierownictwem / kierowany przez Alia Crum, a psychologistpsycholog at Stanford University in the US, demonstratedwykazał / udowodnił that if participantsuczestnicy believed they were eating a decadentwyszukany i bardzo kaloryczny / rozpieszczająco pyszny high-calorie milkshake, their body's hormonalhormonalny responsereakcja differedróżniła się depending onw zależności od what they believed they were consumingspożywając – not how many calories they actually consumedspożyli.
Participantsuczestnicy were given the exact same milkshake but were either told it was healthy and only 140 calories or that it was a 620-calorie "indulgentrozkoszny; pobłażliwy; rozpieszczający" shake. In reality, it was only 380 calories.
When participantsuczestnicy believed they were drinking the "indulgentrozpieszczający, zbyt pobłażliwy" shake, they experienced a significantlyznacząco, wyraźnie sharper drop in the hunger hormonehormon ghrelingrelina, which stimulatespobudza, stymuluje appetiteapetyt and tends to rise when we are hungry and drop when we're full. But when they were told they were drinking a healthy shake, there was less of a dropmniejszy spadek in ghrelingrelina.
This revealed that their mindsetnastawienie and expectationsoczekiwania about the food alteredzmienił how their body respondedzareagował. "Believing you're eating enough makes your body respond as ifjakby it's had enough," says Crum.
This is important when it comes to maintainingutrzymywanie, zachowywanie a healthy weight, because ghrelingrelina influenceswpływa na our metabolismmetabolizm. If we don't feel full and our metabolismmetabolizm slows down, we won't burnspalać as much energy. A restraint mindsetnastawienie na powstrzymywanie się od jedzenia could therefore be counterproductiveprzeciwskuteczny, nieskuteczny, działający odwrotnie do celu for maintainingutrzymywanie, zachowywanie a healthy weight. "If you're trying to lose weight and you reduce sugar and fat and caloric intakespożycie kalorii, but you're in a restraint mindsetnastawienie na powstrzymywanie się od jedzenia, that will keep you from losing as much weight."
Crum has found similar results when it comes to our own genetic predispositionskłonność, predyspozycja to feeling full. Individualsosoby, jednostki who were told they had genes that made them fuller easier produced more of the weight-regulating hormonehormon regulujący masę ciała GLP-1, even if they didn't have those genes.
Labellingetykietowanie makes a difference too. In another study, participantsuczestnicy were asked to eat a proteinbiałkowy bar either labelled as "tasty" or "healthy", but both had the same nutritionalodżywczy contentszawartość. A third group of participantsuczestnicy were only asked to rate the appearancewygląd of the bar.
After eating the "healthy bar" participants reportedstwierdzili feeling less satisfiedsyty; zadowolony and more hungry, and went onto consumespożywać more food, even compared to those who didn't eat the bar. This shows that health labels can reduce the expectationoczekiwanie; spodziewanie się of experiencing pleasureprzyjemność, meaning foods labelled as healthy could leave us feeling less satisfiedsyty; zadowolony.
Labellingetykietowanie healthy foods to emphasisepodkreślać taste and enjoyment rather than health or nutrition has also been found to increase the likelihoodprawdopodobieństwo of people enjoying those foods. Similarly, individualsosoby who feel guilty about eating something indulgentpobłażliwy; rozpieszczający przyjemnością like chocolate cake, have been found to be less successful at losing weight.
Taken togetherbiorąc to wszystko razem, this research has important implicationskonsekwencje, implikacje for those who are looking to lose weight. As my colleague David Robson has explored in depthdogłębnie in his book The Expectation Effect, denyingpozbawiając, odmawiając sobie yourself a treatsmakołyk; drobna przyjemność doesn't automatically mean you will be eating fewer calorieskalorie overallłącznie; ogólnie. In fact, restraintpowściągliwość; umiar could lead to compensatorykompensacyjny overeatingobjadanie się later.
What we could instead focus on, says Crum, is trusting our bodies and avoiding food descriptorsokreślenia, opisy (słów użytych do opisu żywności) that suggest deprivationpozbawienie, deprywacja, such as "light", "low" or "reduced". A mindsetnastawienie, sposób myślenia of feeling like you're not getting enough, could actually be counteractingprzeciwdziałający, niwelujący the work of dietingstosowanie diety, odchudzanie," she says.
Gearhardt agrees, and says it would benefit usprzynieść nam korzyść to think of food as enjoyable rather than solelywyłącznie focusing on nutrientsskładniki odżywcze and calorieskalorie. "When we limit ourselves it can become a choremozolny obowiązek," she says.
Instead, we need to focus on unprocessednieprzetworzony food including proteins and plenty of fruits and vegetables, Gearhardt says. "This is what the human body was designed to be nourished by and to find rewardingdający satysfakcję and appealingatrakcyjny."
Reducing ultra-processedmocno przetworzony foods will also help with that as they do not provide the nutrientsskładniki odżywcze we need, and can leave us wanting moresprawiać, że chce się więcej.
We can do this with a "mindsetnastawienie of indulgencepobłażanie sobie" too, Crum argues. This means ensuringzapewnianie your body is getting exactly what it needs rather than focusing on restraintpowściągliwość. "Trust yourself and your body to be hungry for the right things at the right time," Crum says.
Eating an occasionalsporadyczny, od czasu do czasu treatprzysmak; coś na przyjemność and enjoying it, alongside a balancedzbilansowany, dobrze zrównoważony diet, can clearly play a role inodgrywać rolę w; mieć wpływ na maintainingutrzymując, zachowując a healthy weightprawidłowa waga.
* Melissa Hogenboom is a seniorstarszy rangą; wyższy stanowiskiem health correspondentkorespondent; reporter at the BBC and author of Breadwinners (2025) and The Motherhood Complex. She is melissa_hogenboom on Instagram.