Hunger pangs from a new diet are nobody’s idea of fun, but new research shows that hunger can help you think better.In a new paper, released by Utrecht University in The Netherlands, the authors conclude that hungry people make better strategic decisions.
The research was conducted on groups of participants who had been asked to rate their level of hunger and appetite before the tests began. They were then asked to complete the ‘Iowa Gambling Task’ (IGT), frequently used to test rational decision making in a lab.
The IGT asks players to pick from between 4 decks of cards, which can either give prize or small penalty. Some decks have a higher proportion of “good” cards than others, and the time taken for participants to work this out and focus on good decks is a test of their decision making. Surprisingly, hungry participants identified and stuck to the good decks more quickly than their peers.
Prior research has shown that other surprising factors, like needing to use the toilet, can make people act more rationally; but this new research is surprising for several reasons. People who are hungry are in a “hot” state, trying to satisfy an immediate need; and generally assumed to make worse long term decisions.
Although this new paper may boost the popularity of fasting diets like the 5/2; it seems the link between restraint and better decisions had been noticed centuries ago by Confucian scholars. The Hara Hachi Bu is a diet based on Confucianism, and directly translates as “eat until you are 8 parts full”. In Okinawa, Japan the Hara Hachi Bu became a dominant lifestyle in the early 21st century – making it the first time a population group had voluntarily practiced calorie control. The average BMI in that area is between 18 and 22, while it also contains the world’s densest population of centenarians – a ringing endorsement to say the least!
Managing your hunger can also have more direct benefits, aside from helping you live longer and more healthily. Players of strategic games like Poker and chess make rapid-fire decisions, all of them important, over the course of a game. In fact the IGT (as its name suggests) uses the same parts of the brain as gambling, suggesting the paper’s results are most applicable in that field.
If you’re looking to find out whether your new fasting diet can make you a card sharp, GamingClub offers newly updated Poker software and hundreds of games, running 24/7.
While being hungry may help your strategic thinking, remember that any diet must be balanced and contain all your essential nutrients if it is to do you any good at all.