Have you ever eaten at a café that sold gorgeous cakes and pasteries, yet decided not to order dessert?
It’s not something I recommend, but apparently if we all decided to eat in patisseries and bakeries, stare at the cakes and pastries, we would decide to order the egg white omelette or green salad sans dressing, instead.
The Telegraph reports that psychologist Floor Kroese has carried out one of those “studies” we all love so much, and has discovered that if women sit starting at swirly butterfrosting cupcakes and cheesecakes heaving with raspberries it helps “strengthen a woman’s determination to eat healthier”.
Kroese’s study consisted of 54 female students, half of which were asked to stare at a picture of a flower, the other half, a picture of a chocolate cake.
Then, the women were asked about their “eating regimes” and offered an oatmeal cookie, or a piece of chocolate. Shockingly, the ladies who had been staring at the chocolate cake picked the oatmeal cookie. The flower stare-ers? They picked the chocolate.
Kroese says that this is because: “Food temptations do not always trigger indulgence. It seems that seeing a food temptation reminded people of their goal to watch their weight, and helped them act accordingly."
Well, that’s the nice logical way of looking at it.
What I think actually happened in those female student’s minds to cause them to choose the oatmeal cookie, was that the women who were staring at the chocolate cake started thinking about how much they fucking loved chocolate cake.
“I could eat that whole thing. Right. Now.”
Then they started to think about how fat they’d get if they sat around eating chocolate cake all day, and that they should really get down the gym more. God, is their ass getting bigger by just looking at that cake? Yea. It is. Oh god. It is. Do they have time to hit the gym before it closes?
And then, lo and behold, Mr. Survey asks their eating habits – “He’s judging what I’m eating! Shit, I knew this skirt makes me look huge!” - and then, when offered the choice between a “healthy” oatmeal cookie, and a piece of Fatty McFat-Fat chocolate, they chose the healthier option. A cookie.
Whether one can see an oatmeal cookie as being “healthy” is a completely different matter – but this study is a load of bollocks.
This psychologist doesn’t seem to quite grasp the depths of women’s disordered eating, and how crazy our ideas and thoughts around food can get. The women staring at flowers weren’t thinking about food. They weren’t thinking about the calories in the chocolate cake or how they’d love nothing more to have a big piece of cake for dinner. They were thinking about flowers.
Then, when suddenly asked if they’d like some chocolate or an oatmeal cookie - hell, they’ll go for the chocolate. It’s been boring staring at the damn flower.
Kroese even suggests that women "trying to lose weight should try sticking a picture of unhealthy snacks on their fridge door to stop them from eating unhealthily."
Um, all that would make me want to do, is go to M&S or Safeway and buy the biggest cheesecake I could find.
Image via bossacafez's flickr