Think first, and think carefully may sound like good advice to dieters. In fact, with the holidays approaching and the massive amounts of food and snacks that will soon be tempting us, it sounds like good advice for everyone.
But a new study suggests that thinking too much about food choices may make people act contrary to their dieting goals.
In the study, brilliantly titled "Because I Am Worth It," researchers note that "self-regulation failure is often explained as being overwhelmed by impulse." In other words, the urge to eat that cookie overpowers the fact that we know we shouldn't eat it – the belly beats the brain.
The analysis of 50 studies found that thinking can actually facilitate our impulsive motivations.
Why?
Because we are very good at rationalizing choices to cheat on our diets, according to lead researcher Jessie De Witt Huberts, a PhD student in the department of clinical and health psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
"People seem to be very creative at coming up with such reasons," she said in a release.
"They can justify having the cake on account that is has been a hard day, or that they will exercise tomorrow, that it is a special occasion, or that it is impolite to refuse. This is when justification processes become a slippery slope – as the reasons are often applied ad hoc, they no longer form strict rules that regulate when you stick to your diet and when you can cut yourself some slack."
And it doesn't take much for us to give ourselves the green light to pig out, apparently.
In some of the studies analyzed, people who got positive feedback on a task were more likely to choose an unhealthy snack when a healthy one was also available.
"What was particularly interesting is how easily convinced participants were by the justifications," De Witt Huberts says. "Sometimes they merely had to express the intention to help someone, think about doing something altruistic rather than actually doing it, to justify subsequent hedonic consumption."
The study was published online earlier this month in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review.
So how can someone survive the holiday food deluge without rationalizing bad dietary choices?
Become aware of the justifications you use is a good place to start, the authors say. Because, really, do you actually deserve that cookie?
Dave McGinn