Swallowing a Lie May Aid in Weight Loss, Research Suggests

[Celebration]

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/nutrition/la-sci-diet2aug02,1,3577213.story?coll=la-health-nutrition-news

Disturbing on so many levels I don't know where to begin-- but interesting, very interesting.

A team led by psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus of UC Irvine found that it could persuade people to avoid fattening foods by implanting unpleasant childhood memories about them — even though the memories were untrue.

In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team said it successfully turned people off strawberry ice cream and, in earlier studies, it had done the same with pickles and hard-boiled eggs — in each case by manipulating the subjects to believe that the foods made them sick when they were children.

The scientists say they have also successfully implanted positive opinions about asparagus by convincing subjects that they once loved the vegetable.

The method, if perfected, could induce people to eat less of what they shouldn't and more of what they should, Loftus said. Good memories about fruits and vegetables could be implanted, as well as bad ones about low-nutrient, high-calorie foods.

[kweerwolf]

1. There's no lie big enough ...

... to convince me that I once loved Brussels spouts! :puke:

[unblock]

9. i actually DID once love brussels sprouts!

i was in france (alsace) at the time. richest soil in the world. the the brussels sprouts tasted wonderful, and NOTHING like any brussels sprouts i've ever had in the u.s.

[booksenkatz]

2. Swallowing lies also helps one lose one's country. NT

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. mind control in any form is

some scary shit

[Donailin]

11. scary but powerful and effective

I for one believe that the mind is the key to our own prisons. There is definitely something to positive thinking, just as there is something to negative thinking. We create our own reality.

[greyl]

4. Eternal Diet of the Spotless Mind

That paper sure does bring up a whole can of worms, doesn't it?

[beam me up scottie]

5. Loftus did some research on that wonderful 80's PCT,

recovered memories.
If I'm not mistaken, she helped debunk the myth.

[SmokingJacket]

10. I went to a conference she was at once.

Brilliant stuff.

And it's true: it's very easy to convince someone they remember something that never happened. You basically ask them to fantasize something, they form a clear picture of it in their mind, and then, later, they naturally mistake this fantasy for a real memory.

[Desertrose]

15. But is it really natural to mistake a created fantasy for a real memory???

Are there any kind of statistics about this? How far back in their memory timeline do you go?

"You basically ask them to fantasize something, they form a clear picture of it in their mind, and then, later, they naturally mistake this fantasy for a real memory."



I'm not sure I agree that they naturally mistake the false memory for a real one....I would hope it would take a bit more effort.

[beam me up scottie]

17. I remember reading one of the studies

done on children, it was ridiculously easy to "implant" false memories.

Her work was extremely important and helped debunk the myth of repressed memories/satanic cult and defuse the hysteria.

[greyl]

18. Remembering Dangerously - Loftus

http://www.csicop.org/si/9503/memory.html

[beam me up scottie]

19. jesus...

And these people were adults.
How terrible for the wrongly accused parents.

[salvorhardin]

13. This is at Big Fat Blog too

The user midwest has an interesting and relevant comment.

As a psychologist and "fan" of Beth Loftus' work, I just want to say that I don't believe she did this study to investigate ways to get people to lose weight. Other individuals quoted in the article are the ones who brought the weight loss aspect into it. Rather, I think that this study is another in her program of research looking at the effects of having false memories. The implications of these findings regarding weightloss are frightening, but I don't see evidence that the study was conducted as a "weightloss" study or that Dr Loftus and her colleagues had those intentions. It's simply another demonstration of the power of false memories. Any applications of these techniques would be another issue, and well outside of the realm of this study. I would like to read the actual study, but I wouldn't classify this as a study looking at how to "fight fat". It was an interesting emperical question. As someone who has seen her own research misquoted and mis-understood by the media, I really don't put a lot of faith in the reporter's interpretation.

That said, I am OK with the variables studied. I believe that people should be encouraged to eat more fresh vegetables and less ice cream. Not for weight loss, but for health. So I don't see any problem with the actual study, just the interpretation and commentary provided in the newspaper article.

[beam me up scottie]

16. THANK you.

I was starting to worry that she had gone over to the stupid side.

[Desertrose]

6. I agree..it is VERY scary....

Parents might use this strategy to clean up their children's eating habits — get them to eat more broccoli, perhaps, or fewer French fries, she said.

Gregory Stock, director of UCLA's program on medicine, technology and society, said this might not be the best thing for healthy parent-child relationships.

"How would the child feel later on once you told them how you had manipulated them into eating their vegetables?" he said. "If you're going that far, why not use Photoshop to doctor their childhood photos to show them having problematic experiences with junk food?"

"For that matter, Stock added, "it would be much simpler to give kids the offending food — a McDonald's burger, a pizza, whatever — and put a little something on it that makes them harmlessly sick … then you would really affect their eating."
Acknowledging that the issue was ethically tricky, Loftus said she and her colleagues debated including this suggestion in their manuscript.

"We finally decided that it's certainly worth some discussion. We're not taking a position on whether people ought to go out and do that or not," she said.


OK...this is pretty scary too....don't want this bunch (or anyone for that matter) planting memories thank you very much!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. I had to read that 4th paragraph 5 times to convince myself it is there.

That's beyond sick. :wow:

[crikkett]

7. recommended for greatest!

Thanks for this article.

[HuckleB]

14. Why?

[salvorhardin]

12. This is so wrong

For that matter, Stock added, "it would be much simpler to give kids the offending food — a McDonald's burger, a pizza, whatever — and put a little something on it that makes them harmlessly sick … then you would really affect their eating."