Researchers from Columbia University found that although children had stronger food cravings than adolescents and adults, they were able to control them by using cognitive strategies.
"These findings are important because they suggest that we may have another tool in our toolbox to combat childhood obesity," psychological scientist and lead researcher Jennifer A. Silvers, a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University said in a press statement. "Such environmental interventions are clearly important, but sugary sweets and tempting treats cannot always be avoided. If children as young as 6 can learn to use a cognitive strategy after just a few minutes of training that has huge implications for interventions."
For the study, researchers examined 105 healthy individuals to determine how food craving and regulating food craving change with age. The participants were aged between 6 and 23 years. They were shown pictures of a variety of unhealthy but appetizing salty and sweet foods while undergoing fMRI scans. For some of the pictures, participants were told to imagine the food was in front of them and to focus on how the food tastes and smells. For the other pictures, they were told to imagine that the food was farther away and to focus on the visual aspects of the food, such as its shape and color.
Researchers noted a 16 percent reduction in cravings among all participants who used the cognitive strategy of imagining the visual aspects of the food. However, children showed a stronger urge for the food even after utilizing this strategy.
Children with higher weight-to-height ratios (known as Body Mass Index, or BMI) showed relatively less prefrontal activity when using the cognitive strategy to regulate food craving than did children with lower BMI, suggesting that the areas of the brain involved in regulating craving may differ depending on body mass.
"We believe this research has implications for a wide range of people, from basic scientists who are interested in how reward processing changes across the lifespan, to obesity researchers looking to devise interventions to curb childhood obesity, to parents and pediatricians trying to raise healthier and happier kids," said Silvers. "Having this basic knowledge in hand is critical if we want to understand how our relationship with food changes across the lifespan."
The study was published online in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
