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The Cooking Trick That Makes You Healthier
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The Mind Trick That Boosts Your Mood
When you’re battling depression or feeling seriously bummed, it’s tough to recall happier moments from your past—tough, but not impossible. They key to looking on the bright side: Using the ‘method-of-loci’ memory strategy, where you train yourself to associate common objects with happy, detailed thoughts, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
“People with depression have trouble bringing back memories that are positive in tone with self-affirming qualities,” says Tim Dalgleish, Ph.D., the director of the Cambridge Center for Affective Disorders and the lead author of the study. “This strategy gives them the option to remember the sorts of things they’d like to be able to remember to counteract how they’re feeling.”
The trick to this mind technique is training your brain to pair random objects you see daily–like a building or tree on your commute to work–with thoughts loaded with happy, detailed emotions. So, for instance: Every time you use your car, look at the steering wheel and think of a vacation you took that left you feeling invigorated and totally joyful. The more senses and details you can conjure, the better—so look at the steering wheel and think of the smell of the ocean, and the feeling of the breeze against your skin, and how happy you were to be there with the people you loved. The object and happy memories don’t have to be related (what does a steering wheel have to do with a beach vacation, anyway?), but you should bump into these items regularly. That way, you ultimately get to a point where you remember the happy moments just by seeing the object, and you don’t have to force yourself to be optimistic when you’re feeling anything but.
For other tips about how to pull yourself out of an emotional funk–and start smiling–read more about dealing with depression:
Antidepressant Information: How to Deal with Depression
The Easiest Way to Fight Depression
How to Fight Depression and Stress with Meditation
photo: dotshock/Shutterstock
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Trick Yourself Into Feeling Full
Wish you could last longer between meals? Fake a bigger serving size the next time you eat. Regardless of your portion size, if you believe you’ve eaten a lot, you’ll feel less hungry later than if you thought your serving was on the smaller side, according to research in the journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers at the University of Bristol showed volunteers small or large portions of soup just before lunch, and then altered the amount of soup they actually ate using a hidden pump that could replenish or drain a soup bowl without the volunteer noticing. Two to three hours after lunch, volunteers who had seen a bigger portion of soup reported much less hunger than those who had been shown the smaller portion.
The authors of the study say that these results reveal how memory processes contribute to feelings of satiety after a meal. “The emotional satisfaction from feeling like you had a big meal may be more important than how much you eat,” says Lisa Drayer R.D., author of The Beauty Diet (not affiliated with the study).
So how can you reap the benefits of this portion control stunt without a hidden soup pump? It’s all about your plating, says Christine Avanti, certified nutritionist, and author of Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food. Try these seven tricks:
Pile on the volume
Make sure to pile on foods that have a lot volume, rather than denser, smaller foods, Avanti advises. For example: “A slice of salmon, asparagus, and a baked potato looks like more than a piece of pizza, but it’s far less caloric,” she says.
Fill up on greens first
When serving dinner, fill half your plate with greens before piling on the main courses, Avanti says. Most vegetables have a lot of volume and the more plate real estate they take up, the more robust and filling your meal appears. Plus, veggies are full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals—other ingredients that can signal your body you are getting enough to eat. Divide the other half of your plate by filling ¼ with protein like chicken or fish and the remaining ¼ with a high-fiber starch like sweet potatoes, she says.
Order the soup
“The concept of soup is that you can load it up with veggies and broth and although it weighs a lot, it isn’t high in calories,” Avanti says. And go ahead and ask for the big bowl—“One large bowl of soup is well under 400 calories,” she says. Perfect for making yourself believe that you’re eating a lot. Just be smart about your soup choice. Choose a broth-based soup with lots of veggies rather than a cream-based soup like clam chowder or broccoli cheese, which is loaded with calories and will defeat the purpose.
Shrink your plates
Eat off saucer-size plates—about six inches in diameter—rather than the bigger plates from the same collection. Researchers from Cornell University found that people who ate hamburgers off of saucers thought they were eating an average of 18 percent more calories than they really were. The people who ate off 12-inch diameter plates, however, were not so deluded.
Toss your bowls
The bigger the bowl, the more you’ll put it in. So when you’re eating foods you tend to gulp, like cereal or ice cream, use a teacup or mug as a serving dish. Save the big bowls for salads and broth-based soups.
Drink from tall glasses
Your tumblers may look short and squat, but they can hold a lot of liquid. People pour about 19 percent more liquid into short, wide glasses than they do in tall ones, according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Or brains focus more on something’s height than its width, so short glasses don’t appear as full to us.
Choose the teaspoon
Smaller dishes make food look big in comparison. Same goes for spoons, even when you’re just serving yourself: Your brain thinks that overflowing teaspoon is filled with food, even though logically you may know that a full tablespoon still has more on it. Another Cornell study found that people who used three-ounce serving spoons served themselves nearly 15 percent more food than those who scooped using smaller two-ounce spoons.
Additional reporting from Blake Miller
Image: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
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The Brain Trick That Warms You Up
Forgot your mittens? Fight off chilly temps with your brain. Conjuring up nostalgic memories may help you feel warmer, according to an article published in the journal Emotion.
Participants were asked to take part in one of five different experiments, each of which looked at how nostalgia was related to perceptions of warmth or cold. One experiment involved placing participants in a cold room and asking them to remember either a nostalgic or ordinary event from their pasts, and then guess the temperature of the room they were in. The nostalgic participants perceived the room to be warmer than those who remembered the ordinary event. In another experiment, participants recalled either a nostalgic or ordinary event from their pasts, and then placed their hands in ice-cold water to see how long they could withstand the pain. Those who recalled the nostalgic event held their hands in the water longer than those who recalled the ordinary event. The other three experiments had similar findings: nostalgic memories made people feel warmer.
Article co-author Tim Wildschut, Ph.D., senior lecturer at the University of Southampton, says this kind of perception may be due to a system called an “as-if body loop.” Certain emotions, when felt strongly enough, can essentially bypass the body’s physical condition and simulate a certain state as if it were actually occurring, Wildschut says. This may be particularly likely to happen if that state has already occurred in the body before–hence the nostalgia angle.
So what kinds of sentimental memories have the most warming power? Wildschut suggests engaging your senses. “We find that music and smells can be strong triggers,” he says. “Conversations with friends who were there at the time can also be a good trigger.” Try it out: Did you ever go to a summer concert? The next time you find yourself shivering, load up that music on your iPod and press play. Let the tunes bring you back to sweatier times.
Not feeling all that nostalgic? Let these reader suggestions inspire you.
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The Smoothie Trick That Keeps You Fuller
Want a sneaky weight-loss trick? Go thick. Thick smoothies will leave you feeling fuller and more satisfied than thinner drinks with the same amount of calories, reports a new study in the journal Flavour.
Researchers at the University of Sussex prepared two yogurt drinks with equal caloric content, but added tara gum—a thickening agent used in cooking—to one of the smoothies. After students sipped both drinks, they reported that they expected the thicker smoothie to leave them twice as full as the thinner blend.
But don’t rush out to the store for some tara gum—just freeze a banana. Frozen fruit will make your average smoothie feel like a thick milkshake, and you’ll be satisfied after consuming fewer calories, says Alexandra Caspero, R.D., owner of weight-management and sports-nutrition service Delicious-Knowledge.com. Even when two foods have the same calorie content, the thicker option makes you feel more satisfied (and eat less) because you tend to associate a thick texture with a full belly, the University of Sussex team explains.
If smoothies aren’t your thing, use the same trick on your entrée by filling up your plate with vegetables. According to a 2012 study, people ate, on average, 153 fewer calories when they chose a pasta dish packed with vegetables and also reported feeling just as full as when they ate an all-noodle version of the meal. That’s because the extra water in vegetables fills up your stomach—and once it’s full, sensors in your digestive system signal your brain to stop chowing down.
Bonus tip: Add a handful of berries to your oatmeal: The added fiber and water increase your satisfaction, and it’ll cost you fewer calories than another cup of oatmeal, says Caspero.
Image: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
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Easiest Workout Trick Ever
Does exercise excite you? If not, there is a way to rev yourself up and make the most of your workout: sipping a caffeinated beverage can give you more enthusiasm about exercising–and boost your performance, according to a new study done by researchers at Coventry University in the UK.
In the experiment, 13 people were split into two groups: one received caffeinated beverage one hour before hitting the gym, while the second group gulped a placebo. How’d their workouts go? The caffeine group completed an average of 38% more repetitions of each exercise, and they also reported having more energy and enthusiasm about exercising, compared to their non-caffeinated counterparts.
Here’s why caffeine helps: When you put your muscles to work, a molecule called adenosine builds up in your muscle cells. That molecule muddles communication within your central nervous system, and so hinders muscle activity and limits your workout potential, explains study author Michael Duncan, PhD, an applied sports science lecturer at Coventry U. But caffeine appears to limit the build-up of adenosine, he says. Past studies have shown that caffeine can also improve aerobic performance, Duncan adds.
How much caffeine do you need to experience this benefit? Roughly 10 to 15 milligrams per 10 pounds of body weight, Duncan says. For a 130-pound woman, that works out to about 175 mg of caffeine—or the equivalent of one cup of coffee (depending on who’s doing the brewing). Another option? The caffeinated banana.
Here are a few more scientifically proven ways to maximize your workout:
Turn it up. Listening to music with a fast, energetic beat while you work out has been shown to improve both muscle endurance and performance during aerobic and resistance training, finds a University of New Mexico review study.
Grab a buddy. Research from the University of Pittsburgh found those women who work out with a friend lose roughly 30% more weight than those who go it alone.
Cool your mitts. Study participants with cooler hands—via specially designed gloves—upped their heart rate, improved their times on a walking test, and lost two more inches compared to women without the gloves, according to a recent study. Cooling your hands reduces the energy sapping effects of heat stress, the study authors explain. Hold a frozen water bottle during your next walk to reap the benefits.
photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
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The Horror Flick Trick You’ll Love
Horror movies are a Halloween staple–and they’re good for more than just chills and thrills. Turns out your favorite scary flick may help you burn calories, too.
According to a new study from the University of Westminster, the sudden scares in frightening movies can raise a viewer’s heart rate, which helps burn calories.
Researchers recorded participants’ heart rates, oxygen intake and carbon dioxide outputs while they viewed certain films. The people watching scary movies burned twice as many calories on average as the people watching movies that didn’t get their hearts pumping.
The more the movie makes you jump, the more likely you are to see a boost in heart rate and calorie burn. “As the pulse quickens and blood pumps around the body faster, the body experiences a surge in adrenaline,” Richard Mackenzie, PhD, a senior lecturer and specialist in cell metabolism and physiology at the University of Westminster told The Telegraph. “It is this release of fast acting adrenaline, produced during short bursts of intense stress, which is known to lower the appetite, increase the Basal Metabolic Rate, and ultimately burn a higher level of calories,” he said.
Before you go on the horror flick diet, however, it’s worth noting that simply sitting still for an hour and a half will burn around 100 calories (burning calories just by existing is referred to as the basal metabolic rate). So freaking yourself out won’t make up for all the extra Halloween candy you eat around this time of year. Still—fifty or so extra calories burned is better than nothing.
Wondering which flick will give you the best burn for your buck? Fire up one of these spooky motion pictures and feel less guilty about that extra handful of popcorn:
1. The Shining: 184 calories
2. Jaws: 161 calories
3. The Exorcist: 158 calories
4. Alien: 152 calories
5. Saw: 133 calories
photo: Wavebreak Media/Thinkstock
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5 Ways to Trick Yourself Into Eating Less
Apparently, the key to Kelly Osbourne’s recent weight loss isn’t what she eats—it’s how she eats it. An anonymous source told Now magazine that the reality star is staying thin by eating only from plates that contrast with the color of her food.
“She takes her plates everywhere. Unlike other fads, Kelly says this diet does help you lose weight and keep it off,” said the source.
While this B.Y.O. plate diet may seem too strange to be true, there is actually some pretty compelling science to explain how plate color can impact how much you eat (and in turn, weigh). A well-documented optical illusion theory called the Delboef illusion is the key, says Koert Van Ittersum, associate professor of marketing at Georgia Institute of Technology and author of numerous studies that explore how perception influences eating behavior. The Delboeuf illusion occurs when the perceived size of a circle–or in this case, serving size of food–is dependent on the size of the circle that surrounds it—in this case, a plate. As Osbourne has found, color contrast can amplify this illusion.
“Our brains play a little trick on us and try to combine both circles into one piece of information,” says Van Ittersum. The result? The same size serving can appear smaller or larger based on the size and color of the plate, affecting how much food we serve ourselves. Check it out for yourself:
Set the Table to Curb Your Consumption
Play these five mind games on your tummy to help shrink it.
Take a taller tumbler. When researchers asked 198 college students and 86 bartenders to pour a 1.5 oz shot of alcohol without measuring, they found that even experienced bartenders poured 20.5% more into short, wide glasses than tall, slender ones, according to a 2005 study published in the journal BMJ. When serving yourself a cocktail or other sugar-laden liquids such as juice or regular soda, use a taller glass to trick your brain into pouring less and you’ll painlessly slurp down fewer calories.
Downsize your dishes. In a 2003 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 85 nutrition experts who were given large bowls at an ice cream social unknowingly served themselves 31% more ice cream than those given smaller bowls. To avoid accidentally serving yourself a super-sized portion, use small plates and bowls. The best part: your stomach won’t even know the difference. The same study found that adults who served themselves cereal in smaller bowls thought they’d consumed 28% more cereal than they actually ate.
On a small plate, match your food. Contrary to Osbourne’s bright idea to eat foods that contrast with the color of her plate, Van Ittersum recommends matching the food to the plate–but only once you’ve downsized. When researchers asked adults to serve themselves white cereal on a small white plate, they served themselves smaller portions than the adults who poured dark-colored cereal on the same plates, according to a 2011 study published in Journal of Consumer Research.
Stuck with a large plate? Make your portion pop. When participants of the 2011 study were given white plates, they served themselves more white-sauce pasta than they did when given red plates. When eating off a large plate, make sure it contrasts with the color of your food to trick yourself into serving–and eating–less.
Coordinate your tableware and tablecloth. According to Van Ittersum, using like-colored linens can camouflage the edge of the plate, reducing the optical illusion so you can see your food serving for what it is, instead of comparing it to the size of the plate.
main photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
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