New app trains the brain to stop reaching for the unhealthy options in food

A GAME that trains the brain to stop reaching for alcohol and unhealthy food can lead to “pain free” weight loss, according to psychologists.

Academics at Exeter University found that less than 10 minutes a day of brain training using a game they have devised can slow impulses to reach for food such as cakes and chocolate.

Dr Natalia Lawrence’s Food Trainer app used neuro-science and lab trials to devise a method of curbing unhealthy food intake.

The app, which is free to the public, is being launched as people try to stay on course to their New Year resolutions to lose weight and cut down on junk food.

A study of 83 adults showed people who played the game online just four times in one week ate an average of 220 kcal less per day, roughly equivalent to a chocolate-iced doughnut.

The Food Trainer game is to be featured on Channel 4 tomorrow night in the programme How To Lose Weight Well.

Dr Lawrence, a cognitive neuroscientist, designed the app after using brain imaging to study how the brain’s reward system responded to pictures of unhealthy food.

She said: “It’s a tool to help people make healthier choices. In an age where unhealthy food is so abundant , we need to design innovative ways to support people to live more healthily.”