The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention writes when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight for a lifetime, the bottom line is calories are what counts. The vital factor in weight management is balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses, or burns off. A calorie is defined as a unit of energy which is supplied by food. In a news release on Jan. 22, 2013, the Association for Psychological Science reported, People Seek High-Calorie Foods in Tough Times.
According to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, bad news about the economy could cause you to put on extra pounds. This study found that when there is a perception of tough times, people generally seek higher-calorie foods that will keep them satisfied longer. It was seen that "when subconsciously primed with such messages, a 'live for today' impulse is triggered causing people to consume nearly 40 percent more food than when compared to a control
group primed with neutral words."
It was also discovered when the same group which was primed with 'tough times' messages was then told the food they were sampling was low-calorie, they consumed about 25 percent less of the food. According to the researchers this occurs because if people perceive that food resources are scarce, they tend to place a higher value on food which has more calories. Laran has said, “These findings could have positive implications for individuals in the health care field, government campaigns on nutrition, and companies promoting wellness. And, certainly beware of savvy food marketers bearing bad news.”
