Even the healthiest of us are powerless to resist those sweet treats from time-to-time.
There are ways to cut out certain triggers, like late-night munching or post-workout snacks.
But when the urge for that dessert with ice-cream and all the trimmings hits you at this time of the year, experts say just go with it.
According to a new study, you should just straight up serve yourself the treat that you want.
The research, which is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research, found that people eat less junk food when they fill their own plate, as opposed to having someone else serve it to them.
Over the course of five experiments, Well+Good reports that researchers had volunteers enter a lab where there were Reese’s Pieces on a table up for grabs.
When the confectionery was served in a bowl for people to scoop themselves, no one did so; if they were served in individual cups, roughly one-third of the participants took some.
Authors of the study wrote that people seem to “have a greater inclination to consume these snacks when less (versus more) physical involvement is required to help themselves to the food.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the case for healthy snacks.
“We suggest that this behaviour occurs because being less physically involved in serving one’s food allows participants to reject responsibility for unhealthy eating and thus to feel better about themselves following indulgent consumption.”
If you’ve already decided that you want to cut out something like sugar entirely, serving yourself doesn’t exactly help the battle to curb your cravings.
But Well+Good also offers up a foolproof detox plan that it says might just sweeten the deal.
