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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.

'Tis the season when many of us go on a seafood¹ diet: we see food and we eat it. But if you want to avoid packing on the pounds, a new study suggests that you should spend more time thinking about food. Because the more of a thing you imagine eating, the less you'll actually eat.

Common sense suggests that daydream² eating is not the best idea. Once you picture a piece of pecan pie, chances are you'll go out and get some. But what if you did more than give the pie or cookie or candy a passing thought? What if you mentally ate your fill?

To find out, scientists had people imagine eating M&Ms. Thirty-three of them. One after another. They asked a second group to imagine an activity that was equally repetitive, but less filling: pumping 33 quarters into a clothes dryer³. Then they put out a bowl of M&Ms.

Sure enough, people who'd already maxed out on M&Ms in their mind ate fewer than the folks who'd been doing their mental laundry. The results appear in the journal Science.

So when visions of Haagen-Daz dance through your head, don't think twice. Just pull up an imaginary spoon. And don't skimp⁴ on the fantasy hot fudge.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkin.