How to limit your snacking urges? If many of us are desperately searching for the answer to this question, a team from Nanyang University in Singapore may well have discovered the secret. According to the results of their study published in the journal Scientific Reportswatching immersive videos (understand with a virtual reality headset) of other people eating candy could significantly reduce cravings.
The researchers started from the trend of “mukbang”, popular shows in South Korea in which viewers watch the host eat large amounts of food for entertainment. “We were motivated to (…) determine if watching food consumption videos can have any effects on their actual eating behavior”the authors said in a statement.
Could these videos lead to bad eating habits, including strong food cravings or binge eating? Quite the opposite according to the researchers. Indeed, the study participants who watched the immersive candy consumption videos (M&M’s) about thirty times subsequently consumed on average 32 to 38% less sweetscompared to the control group that watched a video of a coin being inserted into a washing machine.
Watching food videos on loop speeds up satiety
“It seems that seeing so much food consumed can induce habituation in viewers, leading to a sort of satiety“, indicated Professor Benjamin Li, head of the study. But how to explain this phenomenon? The researchers speak of a phenomenon of habituation or addiction: this effect reduces the physiological and behavioral response which generally results from a repeated stimulation In short, the more accustomed people are to the image, the less motivated they are to respond to food cues.
“Our results suggest that watching immersive food-related videos could be a way to induce satiety and reduce the amount of food consumed after viewing. This could be useful for people looking to reduce their appetite or manage compulsive eating behaviors“, adds Professor Li.
Similar results for olfactory stimuli
The researchers also tested exposure to certain smells as part of the study, in particular to discover the combined effect of visual, auditory and olfactory stimuli: they added the smell of chocolate to the images of M&M’s candies. The participants then consumed 11% less chocolate candies than watching the video without perfume.
“The smell of chocolate had a habituation effect similar to watching people consume chocolate and decreased participants’ desire for sweets“, concluded Li.
Source :
Exploring the effects of habituation and scent in first-person 360-degree videos on consumption behaviorScientific Reports, May 23, 2023
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