Mind Over Milkshakes - How food psychology affects our bodies

As a health coach, I’m often looked upon to have all the answers to nutrition… here’s a tip – they don’t exist… no *perfect* diet exists. But what if it’s our psychology around food that most drives our body’s response to it?

You’ll never find me treating a scientific study as the final word, but one of my favorite studies was one given the moniker “Mind Over Milkshakes”. Researchers had two separate groups drink the same 380 calorie milk shake. One group was told it was a 140-calorie "sensible" shake; the other was told it was a 620-calorie "indulgent" shake full of sugar. Participants' hormonal response was measured after.

The indulgence group produced a dramatically steeper hormonal response; the sensibility group recorded stable hormones. Participants' satiety was consistent with what they believed they were eating, not by its actual nutritional value.

Conclusion: Their minds tricked their own bodies.

Reasons like this make it critical that we create a healthy relationship with the food we eat. Unless you’re dealing with food allergies or sensitives, it’s important to remain confident that our bodies will do what they’re intended to do - protect us. No single meal is going to destroy you, just like no single meal is going to turn it all around for you. Health is about consistency.

Here are some tips to help ensure your food and body are creating harmony, regardless what you may be eating:

- Pray over your food

- Don't take nutritional advice as gospel

- Source food locally and connect with farmers

- Visualize your food nourishing your body before eating

- Ask relatives the foods they’ve thrived on

- In difficult times gravitate to the foods you know make you feel good

- Have fun when eating out

- Know you can psychologically remediate this part of life

- Never stop experimenting and learning - it's your body

- Always listen to your body!

Good luck… and remember, the most black and white thing in nutrition is what it does to your body… not what any scientific study has to say.

Jared

References:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21574706/