It may sound a little strange, but the simple act of tapping your forehead for thirty seconds can help reduce carb cravings. In one study, researchers cued cravings in fifty-five participants by asking them to imagine eating, smelling, and tasting some of their favorite foods. Once the cravings started, participants were asked to rate the intensity of those cravings. From there, researchers instructed the participants to do four different tasks for thirty seconds: tap their forehead, tap their ear, tap their toes, and stare at a blank wall. While all tasks reduced cravings to some degree, forehead tapping was up to 10 percent more effective than the other techniques.
The study concluded that tapping your forehead is an effective distraction technique. The study author, Richard Weil, explained that when you engage the motor cortex—a certain area of your brain—to create movement, it makes the task more complicated, which requires more work. And when a task requires more work, it becomes a bigger distraction.
But there actually may be more to it than that. Holistic and alternative medicine practitioners have been using a treatment called the emotional freedom technique (or EFT) for almost thirty years. People who use this technique believe that when you tap certain areas, like the forehead, you remove energy blocks and create energy balance that can help combat things like cravings, anxiety, and even pain. Several studies show promising results for its effectiveness.