Cognitive-affective Mechanisms of Food Biases Trainings

Eating and indulging in tasty snacks and foods is not harmful but represents a part of our culture and of our quality of life. Overconsumption of such foods, however, can lead to serious down-stream conditions on the long run. When individuals have difficulties to resist such cravings despite holding concerns about the health effects of such intake, the term food craving is being used. A central quality of such food cravings is that they typically refer to very specific foods, often chocolate, and thus differ from hunger, which can be satisfied by any kind of food. This specificity is thus used in novel trainings who associate an automatic avoidance response with images of such foods. On the computer or the smartphone, users repeat speeded movements away from these foods. Upon later confrontation with such foods, these associations can become activated and interfere with shopping or consumption decisions. These types of trainings have proven effective in alcohol treatment. The present program we will compare several procedures of delivering such trainings and test their relative effectiveness in reducing cravings and intake. If successful, they will then be made available to the wider public and described in scientific publications.