It’s a weight loss regime that seems to guarantee success, but researchers may have to work on the name. Proving, it seems, that fighting the flab really is a question of mind over matter, psychologists in America “brainwashed” a number of volunteers into losing their taste for certain fattening foods by implanting unpleasant childhood memories about them.
Even though the memories were false, the psychologists from the University of California managed to successfully turn people off strawberry ice cream, pickles and hard-boiled eggs.
In each case they manipulating the volunteers into believing that the foods had made them sick when they were children.
The scientists said they had also successfully implanted positive opinions about asparagus by convincing subjects that they once loved the vegetable.
Elizabeth Loftus, a distinguished professor of psychology, social behaviour and criminology who led the team, told the newspaper that, if perfected, the technique could potentially induce people to eat better by implanting good memories about fruits and vegetables and bad ones about low-nutrient, high-calorie foods.