Did you ever dream your sugar cravings could be kept under control with a computer game? A team from Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences did, so they set out to create a new approach to help people addicted to sugar decrease their intake.
Sugar on the brain
The researchers knew that brain-training games had helped people quit smoking, so they wanted to develop a similar program to help sugar addicts. They invented a brain-training game that teaches people to shop for nutritious foods rather than reaching for processed foods that are high in sugar.
Named “Diet DASH,” the game has players race through a supermarket, adding healthy foods to their cart instead of sweets.
It seems simple, but the game actually worked!
Testing the game
The scientists recruited 106 overweight adults who ate at least two servings of sweets a day. Before playing the game, the volunteers sat through a workshop that taught them:
• which sugary foods are unhealthy
• why sugar is bad for your
• which whole foods are most nutritious
The volunteers were then sent home to play the games for a few minutes daily for six weeks. Then they were asked to play only once per week for two weeks.
In those eight weeks, more than half the volunteers lost 3.1% of their body weight. They also reported that they found the game to be fun and would like to play it more in the future.
The researchers wondered if a “highly gamified” version of the brain-training program would be more engaging for some players. They created a version that had enhanced design and graphic elements but found no differences in weight loss. They did, however, find that the male volunteers found it more engaging. Because of the this, the team is now recruiting volunteers for a new study in order to test a highly gamified version on male participants.
The results of the first study were published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
