Applied psychopharmacotherapy and psychotherapy do not always bring the expected results in the treatment of mental disorders. As a result, other interventions are receiving increasing attention. In ...recent years, there has been a surge in research on the effects of nutrition on mental status, which may be an important aspect of the prevention of many mental disorders and, at the same time, may lead to a reduction in the proportion of people with mental disorders. This review aims to answer whether and to what extent lifestyle and related nutrition affect mental health and whether there is scientific evidence supporting a link between diet and mental health. A review of the scientific evidence was conducted based on the available literature by typing in phrases related to nutrition and mental health using the methodological tool of the PubMed database. The literature search yielded 3,473 records, from which 356 sources directly related to the topic of the study were selected, and then those with the highest scientific value were selected according to bibliometric impact factors. In the context of current changes, urbanization, globalization, including the food industry, and changes in people’s lifestyles and eating habits, the correlations between these phenomena and their impact on mental state become important. Knowledge of these correlations creates potential opportunities to implement new effective dietary, pharmacological, therapeutic, and above all preventive interventions. The highest therapeutic potential is seen in the rational diet, physical activity, use of psychobiotics, and consumption of antioxidants. Research also shows that there are nutritional interventions that have psychoprotective potential.
Responding to disappointing results from attempts to change behavior via information, not only for diet but for other domains, behavioral economists have proposed a new approach, termed asymmetric ...paternalism or libertarian paternalism, that operates not via information, but by "nudging" individual behavior toward self-interest. This paper summarizes results from two field experiments examining the effects of providing dietary information and of an asymmetrically paternalistic intervention on consumers' selections of food items. The first study compares the impact of providing calorie information to that of making more healthful options more convienient to order. The second study, which focuses only on information provision, examines whether calorie information reduces calorie intake, and, if so, whether its impact depends on the way the information is provided.
Food choice decisions are not the same as intake volume decisions. The former determine what we eat (soup or salad); the latter determine how much we eat (half of the bowl or all of it). Large ...amounts of money, time, and intelligence
have been invested in understanding the physiological mechanisms that influence food choice (James O. Hill, forthcoming). Much less has been invested in understanding how and why our environment influences food consumption volume. Yet environmental factors (such as package size, plate shape, lighting, variety, or the presence of others) affect our food consumption volume far more than we realize (Wansink 2006). Whereas people can acknowledge that environmental factors influence others, they wrongly believe they are unaffected. Perhaps they are influenced at a basic level of which they are not aware. A better understanding of these drivers of consumption volume will have immediate
implications for research, policy, and personal interventions. There are three objectives of this paper: (1) explain why environmental factors may unknowingly influence food consumption; (2) identify resulting myths that may lead to is specified models or misguided policy recommendations; and (3) offer clear direction for future research, policy, and personal dietary efforts.
Despite much effort to decrease food intake by altering portion sizes, "super-sized" meals are the preferred choice of many. This research investigated the extent to which individuals can be subtly ...incentivized to choose smaller portion sizes. Three randomized experiments (2 in the lab and 1 in the field) established that individuals' choice of full-sized food portions is reduced when they are given the opportunity to choose a half-sized version with a modest nonfood incentive. This substitution effect was robust across different nonfood incentives, foods, populations, and time. Experiment 1 established the effect with children, using inexpensive headphones as nonfood incentives. Experiment 2-a longitudinal study across multiple days-generalized this effect with adults, using the mere chance to win either gift cards or frequent flyer miles as nonfood incentives. Experiment 3 demonstrated the effect among actual restaurant customers who had originally planned to eat a full-sized portion, using the mere chance to win small amounts of money. Our investigation broadens the psychology of food portion choice from perceptual and social factors to motivational determinants.
Time Use and Food Consumption Bertrand, Marianne; Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore
The American economic review,
05/2009, Letnik:
99, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper argues that there might be an interesting relationship between how people spend their time and how many calories they consume. It appears that a lot of time spent eating and drinking ...occurs as "secondary" activity (e.g., eating while watching TV, or eating while working). Using an original dataset that tracks what people do and what they eat over the course of the day, this study shows that secondary eating and drinking is not only relevant in terms of time spend, but also in terms of calories consumed. On an average day, half of all daily calories are consumed while also engaged in another task. the Paper offers two pieces of evidence suggesting that what people do (or not do) when they eat matters for how much they eat. Understanding better how people consume when their mind is not solely focused on food may therefore be an important piece of the puzzles that surround the rise in obesity over the last few decades.
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