Research
Adherence
Time discounting measures using food rewards show stronger associations with obesity and unhealthy diets than monetary rewards.
When assessing your eating habits or impulsivity, focus on food-specific choices rather than general financial decisions. Your tendency to choose immediate food rewards is a more accurate predictor of your dietary health than how you handle money.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Findings varied by how time discount rates were measured; stronger results were observed for food than monetary-based measurements.
Why this rating
Based on multiple studies showing null results for monetary rewards but significant results for food rewards.
Source
Unhealthy diets, obesity and time discounting: a systematic literature review and network analysis
Pepita Barlow et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2016
DOI 10.1111/obr.12431
systematic_reviewCited 183×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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