Abstract: In modern affluent societies, where palatable foods are readily available, resisting the food craving brought by tempting food clues and keeping restrained eating to maintain a healthy body weight has become one of the challenging propositions. In recent years, in order to identify the reasons for the success of dieting, domestic scholars have created a Chinese Food Image Database to investigate the neuro-cognitive mechanism of restrained eating, and examine the differences of brain mechanism between successful and unsuccessful restrained eaters. In particular, based on the neural correlates of food craving, researches on general food craving and spicy food craving with Chinese characteristics has been carried out. Exploring the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of restrained eating and food craving can not only promote the theoretical developments of eating behavior research, but also provide important support for health interventions such as obesity and eating disorders.

Key words: restrained eating (RE), successful restrained eaters (SREs), unsuccessful restrained eaters (UREs), food craving, spicy craving