Leading so many to resign themselves to the idea that they lack the willpower to eat consistently well and control their eating habits. The most common phrase that I have heard over the past 30 years when it comes to the foods they find themselves craving is, “I can’t control myself!” Often, the very thought of having to deny yourself your favorite junk foods sends many into paroxysms and can in some cases increase food cravings. "By abandoning the idea that eating "bad foods" equals a self-control failure, consumers should find it easier to exert self-control, particularly if they are armed with the combined dietary knowledge of medically trained professionals and the behavioural knowledge of psychologists and consumer researchers.How To Stop Food Cravings: Achieving Self Control Over Your Eating Habitsĭealing with food cravings can be one the hardest part of losing weight and maintaining any weight loss can only come if there is some degree of self control over your eating habits. "Consumer behaviour researchers and psychologists are better placed to help consumers realise that they have a self-control problem, and to assist them in altering their perceptions of food so that tastiness and healthiness become more positively associated. "We argue that this task falls into the remit of nutritionists, biologists and medical professionals, who can objectively determine which foods and in what quantities are good or bad," Dr Huh said. "If a person is comfortable with their weight and does not anticipate to regret in advance their food consumption choices, then we cannot say that person lacks self-control."Ĭoncluding their paper, the authors question whether consumer behaviour researchers and psychologists have the expertise to advise consumers on their eating practices or give advice on what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. "Because individuals' long-term goals often differ, so too do the prerequisites for self-control failures," Professor Vosgerau said. "That thinking plays into the dichotomous perception of foods being either good or bad, which is an incorrect over-simplification of eating practices."Īs a consequence, Dr Scopelliti and her co-authors, Professor Joachim Vosgerau of Bocconi University and Dr Young Eun Huh from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology's School of Business and Technology Management, argue that obesity should not, as it often is, be associated with a lack of self-control, as the two cannot be empirically linked. "It is not the consumption of cake that automatically signals a self-control failure, it is whether consumers believe that they may regret their food choice in the future our research demonstrates that health and pleasure are not necessarily in conflict. "If the same person ate only a small piece of cake, however, they may not experience a self-control failure because they haven't eaten enough to violate their goal of losing weight and trigger regret. Anticipated regret would signal that eating the cake violated a long-term goal of losing weight," said Dr Irene Scopelliti, associate professor of marketing at Cass Business School. "Presented with the opportunity to eat cake or carrot sticks, a person intent on losing weight would experience a self-control failure when they choose to eat the cake and expect to regret having done so. In the field of consumer research, self-control is often conceptualised as, and tested through, the ability or inability to abstain from 'hedonic consumption' - at its most base level, eating sugary, fatty foods.Īccording to this common conceptualisation, food decisions involve a trade-off between health and pleasure, where deciding on pleasure is associated with a self-control failure.īut, as the authors of Exerting Self-Control ≠ Sacrificing Pleasure argue, for a choice to constitute a self-control failure, it must be accompanied by anticipated regret and violate a long-term goal held by the consumer.
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