#01 The Craver
You eat because your body urges you to – trouble is, it has a hard time resisting sugary, greasy, caloriedense foods. People who fall into this category, says Carmichael, will often tell the researchers, ‘I’m driving down the road and I see a Mcdonald’s, and it’s like the rest of the world fades away and there’s a tractor beam drawing me to it.’ An engineer with a doctorate in robotics, Carmichael is leading a team using FMRI machines to see which parts of the brain light up when we look at comfort foods, and which respond to vegetables. Meanwhile, Martin and his team are assessing subjects’ cravings with questionnaires and behavioural studies. When cravers are given the foods they desire, they are likely to override their body’s satiety cues, where others can stop after that first slice of cake.
The prescription
The goal is not to suppress your cravings, but to acknowledge and learn to withstand them. If, for example, you have a particular fondness for baked goods, you ‘can’t avoid the bakery aisle for the rest of your life,’ says Martin. ‘You have to find a way to live with it.’
To that end, Martin deploys what he calls ‘exposure with response prevention’. He might take a group on a field trip to a local bakery. The first time, he’ll walk them past it; the second, they’ll linger outside. The goal is to build up enough resistance that a craver can buy a loaf of bread for the family without devouring three pains au chocolat on the way back to the car.
The techniques that Martin employs include mindful breathing, to dial down the body’s emotional responses, and visualising positive outcomes – feeling strong and capable during your next run, say – rather than negative ones, such as the sense of deprivation you may feel after waving away the bread basket.
Martin also advises rehearsing difficult situations. That might take the form of setting yourself a oneplate rule at the buffet on your next office away day, or it could involve a little strategising ahead of Fridaynight drinks, when adhering to your regular meal plan is particularly difficult. Try setting an alarm for 9pm, or whenever your prime bingeing time happens to be. A study published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience found that a sound interruption re-engages the brain’s executive function to snap you out of your compulsive state.