Your suggestion has a possible “remembering just how good my favourite unhealthy food tastes” counter-effect.
Other than that, it sounds like a pretty slam-dunk test, for any particular individual, as to whether the effect I’m speculating about is actually real.
Anyone want to commit to trying this? (improving diet isn’t a goal for me right now unfortunately)
That people buy more, less healthy food when they are hungry is pretty well backed up, I understand. (Googling gives this right away)
Your suggestion has a possible “remembering just how good my favourite unhealthy food tastes” counter-effect.
My experience is that how food tastes changes massively depending on my hunger, so you need to bear in mind that “how good my favourite food tastes” will likely be “not very” when you’ve just eaten.
For example, I play sport for about 3 hours on Sundays, and immediately after (before leaving the pitches) I drink a litre of milk, mixed with milk powder (to make double strength milk), mixed with chocolate Ovaltine powder. It tastes great to me at that point in time. I tried it before a practise once, and it was just awful.
Related advice “Don’t go food shopping when you’re hungry”
So would the best option be to pre-commit to your next meal immediately after finishing the current one?
I’ve found it helps (not completely, but noticeably) to remember how various foods leave me feeling.
Your suggestion has a possible “remembering just how good my favourite unhealthy food tastes” counter-effect.
Other than that, it sounds like a pretty slam-dunk test, for any particular individual, as to whether the effect I’m speculating about is actually real.
Anyone want to commit to trying this? (improving diet isn’t a goal for me right now unfortunately)
That people buy more, less healthy food when they are hungry is pretty well backed up, I understand. (Googling gives this right away)
My experience is that how food tastes changes massively depending on my hunger, so you need to bear in mind that “how good my favourite food tastes” will likely be “not very” when you’ve just eaten.
For example, I play sport for about 3 hours on Sundays, and immediately after (before leaving the pitches) I drink a litre of milk, mixed with milk powder (to make double strength milk), mixed with chocolate Ovaltine powder. It tastes great to me at that point in time. I tried it before a practise once, and it was just awful.
As the proverb goes, hunger is the best sauce.
Perhaps it’s the other way around? The study only suggests that the time of day affects the decision, not that worse decisions are made when hungry.