Diet and exercise are the best ways to lose weight, but they certainly aren’t easy. Not as easy as this potential way to lose unwanted pounds anyway.
U.S. researchers from Brigham Young University and Colorado State University claim hearing the food you eat can significantly impact how much grub you consume.
They call it the ‘Crunch Effect’, where you’re conscious of the sound your food is making, in turn making you eat less.
Oddly, the effect doesn’t occur when you hear food being prepared, like the sizzle of bacon in a pan, or the crunch of a handful of chips. The Crunch Effect only happens when you hear yourself chewing.
The researchers conducted three different experiments to come to their conclusion, and in one of them particularly, they found that the amount of food correlates to the intensity of the chewing (you probably know an intense chewer or two). In the study, participants wore headphones that muffled the sounds of their eating, and sure enough, ate more than those with headphones making no noise.
To put the results in relative figures – pretzels, of course – the group listening to noise chowed down 4 pretzels compared to the “quiet group’s” 2.75 pretzels.
“The effects many not seem huge — one fewer pretzel — but over the course of a week, month, or year, it could really add up,” says Ryan Elder, co-author of the study.
Elder’s team suggests being more attentive when you’re eating meals. Turning down the TV or radio while you’re eating makes you more mindful of your meal, prompting you to eat less.
“Sound is typically labeled as the forgotten food sense,” added Elder. “But if people are more focused on the sound the food makes, it could reduce consumption.”
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