Discover the Computer Game That Will Enhance Your Diet

A new study from the British universities of Exeter and Cardiff suggests that it does. Researchers from the two universities created a computer game based on the well-known psychological principles of conditioning and reinforcement, which have also been used in the past to treat diabetes patients and drug addicts.

The game presents players with a changing sequence of food images, requiring them to press a button when they see healthy food, such as a salad, and to do nothing when they see unhealthy food, such as pizza. Over eighty participants, aged 23 to 65, with medium to high body fat percentages participated in the game online, with half serving as a control group shown non-food items.

The study showed that in the six months following the experiment, conditioning worked among the forty participants exposed to the food images. The participants lost weight in a "small but measurable" way. Additionally, in a questionnaire conducted before exposure to the game, after exposure, and six months later, fewer participants reported feeling urges or cravings for unhealthy foods.

This is not the first time a connection between games and the health sector has been observed: many fitness applications use gamification elements to encourage users to extend their running routes or stick to their diet. Fitness games for Microsoft's Kinect or Nintendo's Wii and Wii U consistently achieve impressive commercial success with their niche audiences.

The head researcher, Dr. Natalia Lawrence, admitted in an interview with BBC that the research is in its early stages but claimed it holds potential. Lawrence added that despite the game's effectiveness, to lose weight, "You need to get up from your chair and exercise and combine it with proper nutrition."