The effect of attentional bias modification on eating behavior among women craving high-calorie food

In individuals with healthy weight and overweight, the level of food cravings experienced is closely related to the individual's attentional bias to food cues. Furthermore, an attentional bias toward food cues, especially high-calorie food cues, is often accompanied by poor eating habits, overweight or obesity, eating disorders, and other problems. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of attentional bias modification on the eating behavior of women craving high-calorie food. Sixty-five female college students with a high level of craving for high-calorie foods were randomly assigned to a training group (attended to images of low-calorie food) and a control group (attended equally to images of high- and low-calorie food). An attentional re-training paradigm was used in the training session to modify the participants' attentional bias to these food cues. Compared to the control group, attentional bias to high-calorie food cues in the training group was significantly reduced after training (p < 0.05). The training group consumed less high-calorie food and more low-calorie food than the control group (p < 0.05) in a post-training taste test. However, there was no significant difference between the groups in their level of food cravings (p > 0.05). These findings suggest that attentional bias modification training is a promising brief intervention to improve eating behavior and develop healthy eating habits.