Managing food intake can be challenging, especially when cravings for unhealthy, high-calorie
foods take over. These cravings often lead to unhealthy choices, even when we try to make better
decisions. The I-CRAV project aims to tackle this problem by using smartphone-based interventions
to help people resist cravingsparticularly when they are strongest.
Food cravings for unhealthy options can often override our best intentions. One promising method
to address this is called Approach-Avoidance Intervention (AAI), where people are trained to
associate unhealthy foods with avoidance instead of attraction. This has shown success in lab
settings, but it hasnt been tested in real-life situations. Our project aims to bring AAI into everyday
life by delivering these interventions through smartphones when cravings are most likely to occur.
The goal of I-CRAV is to test whether smartphone-based AAI can reduce unhealthy eating by
targeting cravings in real-time. We will explore how cravings affect the effectiveness of these
interventions and find the best times to deliver them. Additionally, we will use machine learning to
predict when cravings are likely to happen, so we can deliver AAI before they even start.
What makes this research innovative is how it combines two emerging fields: using smartphones to
change eating behavior and using technology to predict the best time for intervention. By
anticipating cravings and delivering AAI at the right moment, we hope to help people make
healthier food choices more consistently. This could lead to more effective, personalized strategies
for managing eating habits.
Ultimately, the I-CRAV project aims to create a practical tool that can help individuals make better
food choices in their daily lives, which could contribute to better health outcomes.