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.

现在正是流行吃海鲜的时候：我们看到食物，吃掉他们。但是如果你想避免增加体重的话，一项新的研究建议你应该多花些时间去想象这些食物。因为，想象中吃的越多，实际上你将吃的越少。

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?

常识告诉我们，幻想食物并非上策。一旦你想象了一块核桃派，你就有可能去吃点儿。但是，如果你想像的不止是派，甜饼，或是糖果这些一闪而过的念头会怎么样呢？要是想像尽情吃个饱会怎样？

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.

为了找出答案，科学家们让一组人想像吃MM豆。一共33个MM豆，一个一个想像的吃。让第二组去想像同样是重复的动作，不过不是食物，而是往干衣机里投33个硬币。之后，拿出一碗MM豆给他们吃。

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，在脑袋中已经塞满了MM豆的人吃的比那些想像洗衣物的人吃的少。研究结果发表于科学杂志。

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，当哈根达斯的画面出现在你脑袋里时，不要犹豫。赶紧再想把汤匙出来，把幻想中的美食全吃光。