How To Train Your Brain To Eat Healthier!

We all know that we should be eating healthier, but does that mean we have to cut out our favorite fatty foods? What’s the answer? The short version: Size matters. Hey everyone, this is Matt Lieberman filling in for DNews. Researchers at Vanderbilt University have released a new study that offers a new solution to the age old problem of diet and portion control. Now, dieting seems pretty cut and dry, in principle. Don’t eat unhealthy food, eat more vegetables, exercise regularly, shower, rinse, repeat. But more often than not, our draconian attempts to cut out the pleasurable fats, salts, and sugars that our brains crave cause diets to crash and burn in their early days, or just make us miserable.

However, the trick is to not “diet” at all, but to shift the ratio of portions over time via something the associate professor of Management Kelly L. Haws calls vice-virtue bundles. She and her colleagues discovered that all people have something called a “taste-health balance point” - namely, the proportion of healthy to unhealthy foods in a single meal that will leave that person satisfied with their taste and nutritional choices. It’s different for everyone, and I’m sure that more than one of you has already decided that their balance point looks like a Big Mac with extra lettuce on it.

But here’s the thing: based on the study, most people fall into a similar range. Namely, the perfect vice-virtue bundle has about one quarter to one half vice foods, and half to three quarters virtue foods. The example they provide is a plate of french fries and apple slices. For most people, their brains only need a small portion of fries to satisfy the vice appetite in their brain, while the apple slices handle the rest of their hunger in a nutritious way.

The study goes on to theorize that vice-virtue bundles could revolutionize the the fast food industry, which has undergone changes as Americans seek out healthier food options. By bundling their existing items that are pure vice and pure virtue, they could create new and attractive options at a relatively low cost.

So what can we take away from this study and apply to our own lives? By finding our taste-health balance point, we can allow ourselves the fatty, greasy, buttery foods that we love, in a portion that maximizes our desire for healthier options. The delicious part? Finding that balance one meal at a time. So what do you think about this study? Do you know what your taste-health balance point is? Let us know in the comments below. I’m Matt Lieberman filling in for DNews. You can find more of my videos over at Sourcefed. Please like the video and subscribe to the channel.