It's mid-afternoon and time for a treat! Do you choose a healthy piece of fruit, or do you head straight for the chocolate?

It turns out that well before we consciously decide what we're going to eat, our brain has already weighed up our choices — and in a fraction of a second.

Now a new study shows which food attributes are processed by our brain faster than others, and how this might influence our dietary decisions.

You can binge more episodes of the Lab Notes podcast with science journalist and presenter Belinda Smith on the ABC Listen app (Australia). You'll find episodes on animal behaviour, human health, space exploration and so much more.

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Featuring:

• Violet Chae, PhD student at the University of Melbourne

More information:

Characterising the neural time-courses of food attribute representations

This episode of Lab Notes was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Menang Noongar people.