Office-based workers spend the majority of their working day sitting, which may put them at risk. One potential way of reducing workplace sitting is through the installation of sit-stand desks (i.e. adjustable desks which allow individuals to work in sitting…
The Force is Not With You….Theresa Marteau: Cambridge Alumni Magazine (CAM)
In this article: BHRU’s Director Professor Theresa Marteau highlights recent research findings that attest to the power of environments over personalised risk information in shaping unhealthy behaviour often without awareness. But while communication of risk is a poor means for changing behaviour she argues it may be core to changing behaviour across populations if it increases public demand for governments to change the environments – physical, digital, economic and social – to make easier the healthier behaviour that most of us prefer but find difficult to achieve.
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Dissociation between real-world food choices and health value judgements in obesity
In an fMRI study published in eNeuro, we show that overweight people make unhealthier food choices when presented with real food compared to lean people, though both make similar, healthier selections when presented with hypothetical choices. Very similar health value judgements of foods in lean and overweight people were accompanied by comparable patterns of brain activity.
These findings demonstrate that greater consumption of unhealthy foods by overweight people is not driven by differences in health value judgements. They also highlight the power of food environments in overriding people’s intentions in making healthier food choices.