It is the season when many of us go on a seafood 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.

現在正是流行吃海鮮的時候：我們看到食物，吃掉他們。但是如果你想避免增加體重的話，一項新的研究建議你應該多花些時間去想象這些食物。因為，想象中吃的越多，實際上你將吃的越少。

Common sense suggests that daydream 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?

常識告訴我們，幻想食物并非上策。一旦你想象了一塊核桃派，你就有可能去吃點兒。但是，如果你想像的不止是派，甜餅，或是糖果這些一閃而過的念頭會怎么樣呢？要是想像盡情吃個飽會怎樣？

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 dryer. Then they put out a bowl of M&Ms.

為了找出答案，科學家們讓一組人想像吃MM豆。一共33個MM豆，一個一個想像的吃。讓第二組去想像同樣是重復的動作，不過不是食物，而是往干衣機里投33個硬幣。之后，拿出一碗MM豆給他們吃。

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.

果然，在腦袋中已經塞滿了MM豆的人吃的比那些想像洗衣物的人吃的少。研究結果發表于科學雜志。

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

所以，當哈根達斯的畫面出現在你腦袋里時，不要猶豫。趕緊再想把湯匙出來，把幻想中的美食全吃光。