Time Delayed Meals May Be The Key To Healthier Eating

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Time delayed meals may never have to be complicated because as the name suggests, all that’s needed is to extend the time to wait before you eat your meal.

Time delayed meals helps curb appetite

Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University, through a series of experiments found that having a significant delay in the time one orders food and the time planned to consume it caused them to prefer low-calorie foods.

The study was recently published in the journal of the American Marketing Association.

Eric VannEpps, a post-doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Health Incentives and Behavioural Economics who leads the study said that one of the interesting finds was that delaying the meal caused the participants to unconsciously to order less and even preferred low-calorie foods.

Bias toward the present

VanEpps points out that this may be due to a behavioural factor of people’s ‘bias toward the present’ that affects the brain to change the mood compared to something that should have occurred at an expected time.

“If a decision is going to be implemented immediately, we just care about the immediate consequences, and we discount the long-term costs and benefits,” Dr. VanEpps said. “In the case of food, we care about what’s happening right now – like how tasty it is – but discount the long-term costs of an unhealthy meal.”

But there is a difference, VanEpps points out, when a meal is ordered in advance which allows one to weigh the short term and long term benefits and costs which means that “you still care about the taste, but you’re more capable of exerting self-control.”

Timing matters

This supports a different study published prior to this one regarding healthful eating where timing is key. The study reveals that ordering groceries online allow people to choose healthier foods and schedule delivery a few days later.

A different study also showed where people would choose a sweet treat or candy bar right away, but would rather choose a fruit like a banana, apple or pear when trying to look for a snack a week in advance.

In one of these studies, 394 workers of a health company were asked to place orders for lunch at least 30 minutes or even earlier before they wanted to pick it up in the company cafeteria. They were given the option to choose to place their orders as early as 7 a.m.  when they would decide to have it picked up by 11 a.m  or 2 p.m.

The results were amazing, people who ordered their lunches by as early as five hours before selected food with fewer calories, those that ordered their meals closer to eating time selected more calorie-dense foods.

Another study this time involving more than 1000 workers showed the same pattern of results.

An interesting bit of the results of both all these studies were that the participants didn’t even consider thinking about what they wanted to have for their meals and given both options to order early or close to eating time, they would prefer to have the same choices.

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