Is There a False Food-Memory Diet?

Aug. 2, 2005 -- Want to eat a healthier diet? A little mental trickery might help.

Just ask the college students mentioned in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They were fooled into believing that as kids, strawberry ice cream had upset their tummies and they had loved asparagus.

Those food memories were totally false, made up by researchers for a study. But many students took the fibs to heart, saying "No, thanks" to strawberry ice cream and "Yes, please" to asparagus.

Researcher's Comments

The finding could be news for dieters -- and that's the truth, according to Elizabeth Loftus, a distinguished psychology professor at the University of California at Irvine.

"We believe this new finding may have significant implications for dieting," says Loftus in a news release.

"While we know food preferences developed in childhood continue into adulthood, this work suggests that the mere belief one had a negative experience could be sufficient to influence food choices as an adult."

In other words, childhood memories about food might affect adult eating habits -- even if those memories are false.

Recipe for False Food Memory

More than 200 students participated. They had no idea their childhood food memories were being tweaked.

First, they filled out questionnaires about foods and food memories. The next day, they were given the results of those surveys. Some results were true; others were fibs.

For instance, the students were told that as kids, they had disliked spinach and liked pizza. That was true.

But some students were also told they had gotten sick after eating strawberry ice cream as kids. Another group heard the same thing about chocolate chip cookies.

The researchers' goal: Find out if those false memories affected adult food choices.

Chilling Affect on Strawberry Ice Cream

In follow-up surveys, the students who got the false strawberry ice cream memory were now turned off from the flavor, even if they'd eaten strawberry ice cream recently.

Some wrote stories explaining the made-up memory. For instance, one student wrote, "Probably happened because there wasn't any other flavor, had to eat strawberry and didn't like the taste."

The Cookie Didn't Crumble

False memories about chocolate chip cookies were less persuasive. The students' enthusiasm for the cookies didn't change after hearing the bogus childhood memories.

Why is that? Kids probably eat a lot more chocolate chip cookies than strawberry ice cream. The technique might work better with less common foods, write the researchers.

You Loved Veggies as a Kid ... Remember?

The researchers flip-flopped their approach in another test.

Instead of making up negative memories about sweet treats, they created positive memories to make veggies more desirable.

Some students were told that they had loved asparagus as kids. Asparagus isn't common fare for most kids, so people might buy the false memory, the researchers reasoned.

Sure enough, asparagus got high marks in surveys of participants who heard the false memory.