Recent research reveals another promising weight loss strategy - repeating what you eat, or decreasing the variety in your diet. This is an interesting contrast to a common nutrition recommendation, "Eat a variety of foods."

Research has shown that hibituation, a form of learning in which repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to a decrease in responding, pertains to many behaviors, including food intake.¹ For example, you are at a family-style restaurant sharing a large bowl of spaghetti. You recognize that you are full and decide not to put another portion of spaghetti on your plate. But, then the waitress comes around with the dessert tray. Suddenly, you are "hungry" again and you order the chocolate cake. Studies have confirmed this, showing that the less variety study subjects have within a meal, the less they eat. They just get tired of the food - whether its grilled chicken breast or pizza. What hadn't been researched, however, was long-term hibituation, such as what happens when someone is repeatedly presented with the spaghetti over days or weeks.

To test this, obesity researchers instructed 32 obese and nonobese women to perform a 30-minute assigned task, after which they were served a 125-calorie portion of macaroni and cheese and were allowed to request as many additional helpings as they wanted. All of the women went through five of these sessions, but half did so on five consecutive days whereas the other half came back once a week for five weeks.²

Results showed that in both obese and nonobese women, daily presentation of food resulted in faster habituation and less energy (calorie) intake than did once-weekly presentation of food. Thus, memory of food over daily meals can increase the rate of habituation and reduce energy (calorie) intake. A practical implication for those looking to lose weight may be to eat the same food at "problem" times of the day. For example, if dinner time is when you tend to overeat, maybe serve yourself chicken and broccoli stir fry every night for dinner for a few weeks. Or, allow yourself popcorn with a little butter for an evening snack - but make sure you make yourself the same buttered popcorn every night. Maybe you'll get sick of it and forgo your evening snack!

Sound unrealistic? Long-term, maybe. Not many people can maintain a fixed menu for extended periods of time. Further, many still argue that a variety of healthy foods is still important for health promotion and disease prevention. Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!

¹Epsein, L.H., Temple, J.L., Roemmich, J.N. (2009). Habituation as a determinant of human food intake. Physiol Behav, 51, 945-950. 

²Epstein, L.H., Carr, K.A., & Cavanaugh, M.D. (2011). Long-term habituation to food in obese and nonobese women. Am J Clin Nutr, 94, 371-376.