The Diabolic Secret Powers of Junk Food

My latest column on Psychology Today features a new study that will make you question the loyalty of your favorite comfort food:

"It seems too clever, too diabolic to be true. A recent study shows that foods high in saturated fat -- ice cream, cheese, red meat -- cause your brain to secrete chemicals that tell the body to ignore biological signals of fullness (like leptin and insulin). The result: you don't "feel" full, and you keep eating. It's as if junk food had been shaped by the forces of evolution, learning to fool humans into ever-increasing consumption. And it explains why we seem to have an endless appetite for some foods, like pizza and a pint of Ben and Jerry's."


Read more here....Enjoy!

After an especially good deed, are you destined to sin?

My newest article is up on Psychology Today:

After an especially good deed, are you destined to sin?
Being good can feel bad—but being bad can make you feel better.

Have you ever experienced do-gooder exhaustion? When you've done the right things for so long, you just need to indulge your inner sinner? Or when you've given so much too others that you want to save something for yourself?

You aren't alone, and this isn't a defect in your moral virtue. Researchers at Northwestern University recently published three studies that show why one good deed can prevent another....

Is your neighborhood making you fat?

I'm writing a new blog on Psychology Today called "The Science of Willpower: Secrets for Self-Control without Suffering." It will cover research on self-control, emotion regulation, stress reduction, behavior change, and health psychology--and also include practical strategies from the classes I teach on these topics at Stanford.

My first post is up!

It's about a new study showing how where you live can strengthen or sabotage your willpower.

STUDY: Nature better than TV at reducing stress

Great post at Psychology Today about a new study that compared the stress-reducing effects of looking out a window at nature, viewing a similar nature scene on a large plasma TV, and staring at a blank wall.

Real nature outside the window outperformed the virtual nature and blank wall. The outcome in this study was physiological recovery from a stressor--exactly the kind of calming down we need to do each time we overreact to an email, hear bad news, feel overwhelmed, get into an argument, or whatever the stressor du jour is.

A great reminder to look out your window or better yet step outside. Consider it a booster shot of health and well-being.