Many people exercise because they know it is good for their health. Although this is true, it can make us feel deserving of a reward and lead us to eat more indulgent, less healthy food than if we had not done any exercise. Generally, lower energy-dense (LED) foods are recognised as healthier choices than higher energy-dense (HED) options. Despite our intention to make healthy choices, seeing tempting higher-calorie foods on offer often side-tracks us. Priming is a psychological tool that makes specific changes to our environment that remind us of our motivation to be healthy. This makes it easier to choose a healthier option, by nudging us towards it without us even realising. However, it is currently unclear which method of priming achieves the best results. Our study explores whether priming people to expect they will receive LED food leads them to make this healthier choice after exercise, even when also offered tempting less healthy HED foods at the moment of selection. Our study observed the foods selected by university athletes after their sports matches. Before the match, half of the participants were primed by asking them to choose a LED snack from the options we offered, which they would receive after the match. The remaining half of participants were not asked this same question. To distract the athletes from our observation of their food choices, participants completed a task prior to choosing their snack, which was disguised as a ‘thank you’ for taking part. Overall, we found the priming group did not choose LED foods significantly more than the control group, hence priming did not increase LED food selection. Importantly, our results indicate that priming must be more noticeable to achieve its goal. Additionally, we demonstrated that priming may be less successful for young athletic individuals, compared to older and more overweight adults recruited in other studies. This highlights the importance of studying a broader demographic range of individuals from the general population. We support future research into this area, which will help us to tweak priming to achieve the best outcomes. ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN74601698. Date registered: 02/10/2020 (retrospectively registered).

中文翻译：

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ral上刺激对食物选择能量密度的影响：一项随机对照试验

许多人运动是因为他们知道这对他们的健康有益。尽管这是事实，但与没有做任何运动相比，它可以使我们感到应得的报酬，并导致我们进食更放纵，不健康的食物。通常，低能量（LED）食品被认为是比高能量（HED）食品更健康的选择。尽管我们打算做出健康的选择，但看到诱人的高热量食品常常使我们望而却步。启动是一种心理工具，可以对环境做出特定的改变，使我们想起健康的动机。这使我们更容易选择一个更健康的选择，因为我们甚至没有意识到。但是，目前尚不清楚哪种启动方法可以达到最佳效果。我们的研究探索了使人们期望他们将获得LED食品的动机是否使他们在运动后做出更健康的选择，即使在选择时也提供了诱人的健康的HED食品。我们的研究观察了体育比赛后大学运动员选择的食物。比赛开始前，有一半的参与者准备好了，要求他们从我们提供的选项中选择LED小吃，比赛结束后他们会收到。其余一半的参与者没有被问到相同的问题。为了分散运动员对我们食物选择的关注，参与者在选择零食之前完成了一项任务，这被伪装成“感谢您”的参加。总体而言，我们发现启动组在选择LED食品方面没有比对照组多得多，因此，上底漆并不能增加LED食品的选择。重要的是，我们的结果表明启动必须更引人注目才能实现其目标。此外，我们证明，与其他研究中招募的年龄更大且体重超重的成年人相比，年轻运动个体的启动可能不太成功。这凸显了研究来自普通人群的更广泛的人口统计数据的重要性。我们支持对该领域的未来研究，这将有助于我们调整启动以达到最佳效果。ISRCTN注册中心，ISRCTN74601698。注册日期：02/10/2020（追溯注册）。与其他研究中招募的年龄更大，体重超重的成年人相比。这凸显了研究来自普通人群的更广泛的人口统计数据的重要性。我们支持对该领域的未来研究，这将有助于我们调整启动以实现最佳结果。ISRCTN注册中心，ISRCTN74601698。注册日期：02/10/2020（追溯注册）。与其他研究中招募的年龄更大，体重超重的成年人相比。这凸显了研究来自普通人群的更广泛的人口统计数据的重要性。我们支持对该领域的未来研究，这将有助于我们调整启动以达到最佳效果。ISRCTN注册中心，ISRCTN74601698。注册日期：02/10/2020（追溯注册）。