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reports have suggested that people in the United States eat too much sugar,
which can make them overweight and expose them to various health conditions.
Yet an experimental computer game could help people curtail their sweet
cravings, new research suggests.
A new trial tests the effects of a
game designed to help people reduce their sugar cravings.
Some records indicate the people in the U.S. consume, on
average, about 57 pounds (almost 26 kilograms) of added sugar per person per
year.
This
is significantly more than the quantity indicated as safe in official
guidelines, such as those issued by the American Heart Association(AHA), which state that adults
should have no more than approximately 6 teaspoons of sugar per day, for women,
and no more than around 9 teaspoons of sugar per day, for men.
Overconsumption
of foods that are high in sugars, and especially added sugars —
such as candy, cookies, and cakes — may contribute to obesity-related
health problems and, according to some studies, may increase
the risk of
certain forms of cancer.
Considering
the potential ill effects of consuming too much added sugar, a team from Drexel
University's College of Arts and Sciences, in Philadelphia, PA, wanted to find
a new approach to getting people to avoid processed foods rich in sugar.
For
this purpose, the team — led by Evan Forman, Ph.D. — developed a
"brain-training" computer game aimed at teaching individuals to reach
less often for sweets and more often for more nutritious foods, such as fruits
and vegetables.
"Added
sugar is one of the biggest culprits of excess calories and is also
associated with several health risks, including cancer. For these reasons, eliminating added
sugar from a person's diet results in weight loss and reduced risk of
disease," explains Forman.
A game that promotes healthful eating
Forman
notes that "Cognitive, or brain-training, games have been used to help
people reduce unhealthy habits like smoking," and adds, "We were also
seeing positive results from labs using computer training programs."
So,
he and colleagues wondered if they would be able to apply the same principle to
encouraging more healthful dietary habits.
Thus, they developed a game — which they named
"Diet DASH" — in which the player has to move as quickly as they can
through a supermarket, rejecting unhealthful products such as sweets and adding
healthful foods to the shopping cart instead.
To
test the effectiveness of this game, the researchers recruited 106 adult
participants who were overweight — which in this case meant having a body mass
index (BMI) of 25–50 kilograms per square meter — and
who reported eating at least 2 servings of high-sugar foods on a daily basis.
Before
taking part in gameplay, the participants attended workshops where they learned
why sugar can be bad for health, which sweet foods are unhealthful, and which
whole foods are the most nutritious.
Later,
the participants played the games at home, first for a few minutes at a time,
every day for a period of 6 weeks, then once per week for 2 weeks.
Promising results following trial
"The
workshop helped give participants strategies for following a no-sugar diet.
However, we hypothesized that participants would need an extra tool to help
manage sweets cravings," Forman explains.
"The
daily trainings," he adds, "could make or break a person's ability to
follow the no-added sugar diet. They strengthen the [relevant] part of your
brain to not react to the impulse for sweets."
The researchers found that more than half of the
participants with strong sweet cravings managed to lose 3.1% of their body
weight over the 8 weeks during which they played the game.
Moreover,
the volunteers reported enjoying the gameplay and indicated that they would be
happy to continue this brain-training in the future. The researchers report
their results in a study paper published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Forman
and the team also looked at whether players found a "highly gamified"
version of this game — which featured enhanced graphic and design elements —
more helpful and engaging than the regular, less showy version.
To
this effect, they had randomly given each participant one of the two versions
to play during the study period. All in all, it did not seem to matter which
version the participants played, in terms of how it affected their weight loss
efforts or taste for sugary foods.
However,
the researchers did notice that men, specifically, tended to find the enhanced
version of the game more engaging, relating to it better. Because of this, the
investigators are now recruiting participants for a further trial, testing the
success of the highly gamified version in training male participants.
The
study authors conclude that "Taken as a whole, [the] findings offer
qualified support for the use of a computerized cognitive training to
facilitate weight loss." At the same time, they note that future trials
must identify the best way to turn the specially designed game into a valuable
tool:
"However, a great deal of work remains to better
understand how to create future trainings that are powerful and engaging enough
to exert effects into the long term."
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