Craving Food? Tapping Your Head Might Stop It - East Idaho News

Craving Food? Tapping Your Head Might Stop It

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Getty 110714 HeadTapping?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1415391093200iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Doing something completely mindless has been shown to stop food cravings.

Richard Weil, in charge of weight loss at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City, says all it might take is tapping your finger to your forehead.

In an experiment, Weil induced food cravings among 55 obese men and women while asking participants to picture their desired treat while rating their cravings’ intensity.

Next, he had each person perform a simple task such as tapping the forehead, tapping the ear, tapping one’s toe or just staring at blank wall, which was actually the control task.

Weil says that each task proved to be effective in controlling cravings although tapping the forehead worked best by apparently blocking out the image of food.

These distractions, as mindless as they appear, could be included in a successful weight-loss strategy, according to Weil.


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