If you’re trying to shift some weight and getting a bit bored of eating healthy food, here’s a trick that you can try.

The Daily Mail reports scientists have discovered that looking at images of pizza or other fatty foods while you eat a salad or some fruit can trick your brain into enjoying the taste of what you’re actually eating.

It sounds bizarre, but according to researchers, our vision plays a major role in how we taste our food and if we start to associate ‘healthy’ food with food we enjoy, such as a slice of pizza or a bar of chocolate, the healthier stuff will actually start to taste better. The result? You could find it easier to wolf down an apple instead of a bag of crisps.

To test the impact that vision can have on taste, researchers from Switzerland showed volunteers quick images of either healthy food or junk food. They were then given an electric taste test which tracked how their taste buds responded to the images.

The results showed that those who had seen the pictures of junk food experienced an improved sensation of taste rather than those who had seen images of healthy food.

“The results provide evidence that high calorie food cues enhance the hedonic evaluation of subsequently presented tastes,” said Dr Johannes le Coutre, who was leading the studies.

This basically translates as: the results show that images of high calorie food cause your tongue to experience sensations that will improve the taste of what you’re actually eating.

Very interesting. So the next time you find yourself craving a greasy fry up, print out a picture of it and stare at it as you eat an apple. Hmm…we’re still a bit sceptical…