Your Mind's Unconscious Ways of Sabotaging Healthy Choices

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We know good nutrition is vital for our physical, emotional and mental well-being.

It should be easy to make wise food choices, yet we all know it is not.

What goes on in that gray noodle of ours when we reach for a donut instead of whole grain toast covered in fresh fruit preserves?

The difficulty is that our decisions are influenced by more than common sense and logic. Our unconscious mind influences our choices based on survival wiring, habit and our perceptions and beliefs. However, awareness of unconscious influences can diminish their power over what we pick up and put in our mouths.

Three Unconscious Influences

1. The Health-Food Perception Effect

Experience has taught us that a gritty but nutritious bran and sunflower seed muffin is generally not as mouthwatering or satisfying as a pastry or egg and bacon between halves of a richly buttered English muffin. Still, it turns out the eyes and taste buds are not always the best judge of healthy food.

A study reported in Appetite reveals that our perception of what healthy food looks and tastes like can fool us. In the study, foods that were less attractive and less tasty were judged by test subjects to be healthier than the more desirable foods, yet the more desirable foods were equally nutritious.

The moral of the study: Read labels and look up nutritional information instead of assuming something you want to eat is not healthy.

2. The Uncertainty Effect

Dean was laid off from his job a couple months ago, and so far his job search has yielded nothing. He looks ahead with uncertainty and finds it difficult to relax and focus on the present. When it is time to eat, will Dean reach for a lean turkey breast sandwich and cup of minestrone soup, or will he grab a greasy bacon cheeseburger followed by a brownie draped in chocolate sauce?

A study done at the University of Pennsylvania shows that uncertainty about the future drains the same brain resources that we use to exert healthy self-control in decision making. This means when we are feeling uncertain, we are more likely to grab the burger and brownie.

The moral of the study: Having awareness of the effects of uncertainty, we can choose to override our anxiety-driven unhealthy choices and make better ones.

3. The Oneness Effect

People who view the body and mind as being interrelated are more likely to make healthy lifestyle choices than people who see the mind and body as separate entities. This was the finding of studies done at the University of Cologne in Germany.

It seems we are more likely to neglect our physical health when the body is viewed as a “mere vessel” to carry the mind from here to there. The research also found that subjects who were initially educated with health-related concepts were more likely to think in terms of mind and body oneness.

The moral of the study: What you believe about the the relationship between your mind and body affects your health habits. And the more educated you are in healthy ideas, the likelier you are to see a mind-body connection.

Source: Scientific American

 
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