The Study
Connecting self-report and instrumental behavior during incubation of food craving in humans
This study looked at how much people say they want food and how often they press a button to think about it after not eating for a while. It found that these two things are connected — but it doesn't prove that waiting longer makes you want food more. It just shows they tend to happen together.
Analysis score
Maximum 44 for a cross-sectional study.
Where the score came from
Scientists made people think about their favorite foods and press a button when they wanted to remember eating them. They also asked how much they liked the food and how long it had been since they last ate it.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 544 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — this suggests that craving isn't just about how much you like something, but also how long you've been away from it — but liking still wins as the biggest driver of desire.
- 2People said they craved foods more the longer they hadn't eaten them (especially after ~14 days).
- 3They also pressed the button more when they said they craved the food.
- 4But how much they liked the food mattered more than how long they'd gone without it.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Learning & Memory
Year
2023
Authors
Nicholas A. Ruiz, Devlin Eckardt, Lisa A. Briand, Mathieu Wimmer, Vishnu P. Murty
Related Content
Claims (5)
In healthy adults, people who report stronger cravings for food also press a spacebar more often to recall food-related memories, even when no food is available.
In healthy adults, the longer someone goes without eating a favorite food, the stronger their craving for it becomes, and this effect is not related to how much they like the food.
A new method that measures how people respond to cues linked to food memories can connect findings from animal studies to human self-reports about cravings, but its ability to detect changes based on how long someone has abstained from food needs more testing.
The number of times people press a spacebar to recall food memories does not change in a predictable nonlinear way based on how long it has been since they last ate, and this behavioral measure is less responsive to food abstinence duration than people's own reports.
After 14 days without eating highly palatable food, cravings for that food stop because the brain's learned dopamine response to the food no longer activates.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.