Weird science: Eat all the cookies you want without gaining weight

Imagine if you could give in to all your cravings and not gain a pound. While many weight-loss plans try to get us to buy into this dream, it really is too good to be true’you just can’t eat chocolate chip cookies all day every day and expect to keep the pounds off. But what if you only thought you were eating chocolate chip cookies, but you were really snacking on rice cakes? According to this report from msnbc.com, the yummy taste of a cookie might all be in your head. Whoa. I just totally blew your mind, didn’t I?

So when is a cookie not a cookie? When Japanese researchers develop a virtual reality system that tricks your mind into thinking you’re eating a yummy cookie when all you’re eating is a plain old wafer. To use this system, which is fittingly called Meta Cookie, users don a wacky-looking headpiece outfitted with a camera, screen and tubes inserted into the nostrils. It projects images of different kinds of cookies onto a pile of plain wafers on a plate. When the user selects a certain type of fake cookie, the system pumps a corresponding scent up the user’s nose. The researchers testing the Meta Cookie say users are regularly tricked into thinking they’re eating their cookie flavour of choice.While the Meta Cookie won’t be ready for retail any time soon, I think it would make a killing on the weight-loss market.
Would you use the Meta Cookie to curb your cravings?

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‘ 10 weight-loss tricks you haven’t tried
‘ 5 diets that don’t work
‘ 6 reasons why you’re overweight