Nutrition Videos

Today, I'm talking about a study that will initially seem irrelevant with nutrition issues, but not only is it very relevant, but it is also a study that highlights the most important problem that I face in the two medical nutrition centres that I lead. Be patient, you'll hear something really important. The study was carried out in the early '70s, in one of the most famous universities in the world, Princeton University, USA. The participants in the study, who did not know its purpose, were students of the Theological School of Princeton, who were studying in order to become priests. In fact, with such CVs, most of them were certain to reach high positions in the American ministry. At the beginning of the study, the students gathered in a room where they had to fill in some questionnaires that evaluated if someone wanted to become a priest due to an internal, deep motive, or due to external motives. For example, to the question "I want to become a priest to make the world a better place," most positive answers came from those that had an internal motive, while to the question "I want to become a priest to go to paradise," from those considered by the researchers to have mainly external motives. Keep this in mind, because it's really important. After the questionnaires were filled in, each participant went to a different room. They had to prepare a sermon inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan. Let me remind you that the parable of the Good Samaritan is about a person that is found lying on the ground injured by thieves, and no one helps him except for the Good Samaritan. After they completed the preparation of the sermon, the participants had to go to a room to preach it. While they were in the preparation room, a researcher went into the room, and this is where the goal of the experiment becomes apparent. The participants had been divided randomly into three groups. The researcher said to the participants of the first group "You have much time. "There's no need to hurry. But you'd better start now, "so that you can take it easy." The researcher said to the participants of the second group "You have enough time, but you have to start now, if you want to be on time." Finally, they said to the participants of the third group "You're late. You have to hurry, in order to be on time. Go, now!" To go to the room where they would preach, the participants had to go through a really narrow corridor, just one-metre wide, where the researchers had set up the parable of the Good Samaritan. An actor was lying vertically on the corridor, blocking the way. Red colour had been poured on him, which looked like blood, and he was desperately asking the participants to help him, and they approached him one by one. Stop for one second, and imagine this scene. Theology students, who were on the way to preach the parable of the Good Samaritan, suddenly saw an injured man asking for help. The researchers counted how many of them stopped. The funny thing is that in order to cross the corridor, the participants had to pass over the injured man, to almost step on him. I'm sure you're wondering how many stopped to help from each group. Let's see. From the group of students that had ample time, 63% stopped to help, which means that 37% did not stop. This should definitely concern us. From the group of students that were on time, 45% stopped. From the group of students that were under time pressure, just 1 out of 10 students stopped, namely 9 out of 10 almost stepped on an injured man, in order to be on time to preach how important it is to stop and help other people, when they need us. What's the meaning of this study, and what does it have to do with nutrition? The researchers compared the behaviour of the participants that stated that they study theology due to internal motives, and they saw no difference in their behaviour. Even those that wanted to see the good in the world did not stop more often. Those that stopped more often were the ones that had more time. The researchers essentially tried to tell us that our choices have nothing to do with whether we're good or bad persons, but with whether we believe that we have time or not. And I'm stressing the word "believe". Again, many of you may not be certain yet what this has to do with nutrition. The most common reason I hear why someone eats low-quality foods is that they don't have time to pay attention to their diet. In the two medical nutrition centres that I lead, I've treated tens of thousands of people that want help in improving their diet, and the most common justification they give themselves in order to consume foods of low nutritional value is lack of time. They believe that they don't have time to pay attention to their diet. Do you have time to pay attention to your diet? How often are you in a hurry, believing that you have to grab a tasty souvlaki, instead of spending 15 minutes to make lentils in the pressure cooker?