We all know that sugar is really bad for us. Perhaps you wonder like me how to cut down? then we might have found an answer. An American article shows the correlation between computer games and the cut down of sugar. Research suggests that young people around the world consume an average of about 57 pounds. Which is almost 26kilograms of added sugar per person per year.
This significantly shows that figure is more than the quantity. As indicated as safe in the official guidelines, such as those issued by the American Heart Association (AHA). The guideline states that adults should have no more than approximately 6 teaspoons of sugar per day, for women and no more than around 9 teaspoons of sugar per day, for men.
With the potential ill effects of consuming too much added sugar in mind. A team from Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, in Philadelphia, PA, wanted to find a new approach to getting people avoid processed foods rich in sugar.
For this purpose, the team- led by Evan Forman, Ph.D. – developed a “brain-training” computer game. Which is aimed at teaching individuals to reach less often for sweets and more often for more nutritious foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Forman stated that. “Added sugar is one of the biggest culprits of excess calories and is also associated with several health risks, including cancer. For these reasons, eliminating added sugar from a person’s diet results in weight loss and reduced risk of disease”.
Forman opined that “cognitive, or brain training games have been used to help people reduce unhealthy habits like smoking”. And adds, “we were also seeing positive results from labs using computer training programs”. It led him and his colleagues to wonder if they would be able to apply the same principle to encourage a more healthy lifestyle.
They went on to develop a game which they named “Diet Dash”. In the game, the player has to move as quickly as they can through a supermarket, rejecting unhealthy products such as sweets and adding healthy foods to the shopping cart. To test the effectiveness of the game, a total of 106 overweight participants were selected- which in this case meant having a body mass index (BMI) of 25-50 kilograms per square meter. Reported to be eating at least 2 servings of high sugar foods daily.
Before taking part in the game, the participants attended workshops. Which was aimed to inform them on why sugar is bad for the health. Providing alternatives they should start eating instead. The participants played the games at home, first for a few minutes at a time, every day for a period of 6 weeks, then once per week for 2 weeks.
Forman stated “The workshop helped give participants strategies for following a no-sugar diet. However, we hypothesised that participants would need an extra tool to help manage sweets cravings”. He adds, “the daily training could make or break a person’s ability to follow the no-added sugar diet. They strengthen the relevant part of your brain to not react to the impulse for sweets.”
The researchers found that more than half of the participants with strong sweet cravings managed to lose 3.1% of their body weight over the 8 weeks during which they played the game. At the end of the study, the researchers found the results encouraging. They are optimistic that with a better version of the game, more results would be yielded.