‘Tis the season when many of us ______1______: we see food and we eat it. But if you want to avoid ______2______, a new study suggests that you should spend more time thinking about food. Because the more of a thing you imagine eating, the less you’ll actually eat.
Common sense suggests that _____3____ is not the best idea. Once you picture a piece of pecan pie, chances are you’ll go out and get some. But what if you did more than give the pie or cookie or candy a passing thought? What if you mentally ate your fill?
To find out, scientists had people imagine eating M&Ms. Thirty-three of them. One after another. They asked a second group to imagine an activity that was equally repetitive, but less filling: pumping 33 quarters into a clothes dryer. Then they put out a bowl of M&Ms.
Sure enough, people who’d already _____4_____ M&Ms in their mind ate fewer than the folks who’d been doing their mental laundry. The results appear in the journal Science.
So when visions of Haagen-Daz dance through your head, don’t think twice. Just pull up an imaginary spoon. And don’t _____5_____ the fantasy hot fudge.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
go on a seafood diet packing on the pounds daydream eating maxed out on skimp on
幻想减肥法 吃海鲜的季节来到了：我们无法抵挡面前美味的诱惑。但你若想保持身材——根据一项最新研究——你应该花更多的时间来想想美食。因为某种食物在你想象中吃下的越多，你实际上就会吃得越少。 生活经验告诉我们，"画饼充饥"可不是最佳选择。当你的脑海里浮现出一块核桃派时，你很可能去找一些来吃了。 但如果你不仅仅是让那些派、饼干或糖果从脑海里转瞬即逝呢？如果你让自己在想象中大饱口福一番，又会怎样呢？ 为了找到答案，科学家让实验者想象自己在吃MM豆：一连吃下33颗MM豆。对于第二组实验者，科学家要求他们想像一个同样反复但不能填肚子的行为：给干洗机连续投入33次硬币。之后他们拿出一碗MM豆，让参与者享用。 果然，那些已经在想象中吃够了MM豆的人比那些想像洗衣的人要吃得少。此项研究结果发表在《科学》杂志上。 所以当哈根达斯在你脑海中闪过时，不要三思而行。赶紧想像你已拿起勺子，---别舍不得---大口享用那幻想中的巧克力圣代吧。