THURSDAY, Dec. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers report that
they may have hit on a new trick for weight loss: To eat less of
a certain food, they suggest you envision yourself gobbling it
up Repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces one's
appetite for it at that moment, said lead researcher Carey
Morewedge, an assistant professor of social and decision
sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Most
people think that imagining a food increases their desire for it
and whets their appetite. Our findings show that it is not so
simple," she said. Thinking of a food -- how it tastes, smells
or looks -- does increase our appetite. But performing the
mental imagery of actually eating that food decreases our desire
for it, Morewedge For the study, published in the Dec. 10 issue
of Science, Morewedge's team conducted five experiments. In one,
51 individuals were asked to imagine doing 33 repetitive
actions, one at a time. A control group imagined putting 33
coins into a washing machine. Anoth