Recent studies highlight that the consumption of sugar by Americans far exceeds healthy limits, leading to obesity and various other health issues. However, new research proposes that a designed computer game could assist individuals in managing their sugar cravings. Records indicate that the per capita sugar consumption in the United States averages around 57 pounds or approximately 26 kgs per year, which surpasses the recommended limit as per guidelines by organizations like the American Heart Association (AHA) which stipulates around 6 teaspoons per day for females and around 9 teaspoons for males. Excessive consumption of high-sugar content foods such as cakes, candies, and cookies potentially leads to obesity and may even increase the risk of certain cancers according to some investigations.
Recognizing the implications of high sugar intake, a team from the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA sought fresh strategies to encourage people to reduce their sugar-rich processed food consumption. They put together a computer-basted “brain-training” game designed to decrease the desire for sweets and encourage healthier food options like fruits and vegetables. “Added sugar is a leading source of excessive calories and is connected to various health risks, including cancer. Consequently, omitting added sugar from a diet results in weight loss and lower disease risk,” declares Forman.
Forman mentioned how brain-training or cognitive games have been utilized to assist people in reducing unhealthy habits like smoking. Encouraged by the positive outcomes of using computer-based training programs, Forman and his team decided to use the same principle and apply it to influence healthier eating habits. They developed the “Diet Dash” game, where participants need to navigate a virtual supermarket as quickly as possible, rejecting unhealthy products like sweets and choosing healthier choices to add to their cart.
To assess the effectiveness of the game, the researchers enlisted 106 overweight adults who reported consuming high-sugar foods daily. Before starting the game, the participants attended workshops to understand the dangers of sugar on health, the unhealthful nature of sweet foods, and identifying the most nutritious whole foods. The participants later played the games at home, initially for a few minutes daily over six weeks and then reduced it to once a week for two weeks.
“The workshop gave participants strategies for implementing a sugar-free diet. We hypothesized that they required an additional tool to handle sugar cravings,” explained Forman. More than half of the people who had strong sugar cravings managed to lose 3.1% of their body weight over the weeks they played the game, and most reported enjoying the experience and expressed a willingness to continue playing as a brain-training tool in the future. The study’s results were published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine with the conclusion that the computerized cognitive training showed promise in facilitating weight loss. Nevertheless, the researchers emphasized that future trials need to devise the best strategy to make the game a useful long-term tool.
Lastly, the team also examined whether a more “gamified” version of the game was more attractive and engaging than the original version. The participants were randomly divided into two groups to play either the original or the gamified version. In general, there was no distinct difference in how each version impacted participants’ weight loss or their taste by sugary foods. However, they did observe that the men in the study seemed more engaged with the gamified version. Based on this observation, they are planning further trials using only the highly gamified version with male participants.