Passing the time by playing a video game on your smartphone may help you stave off cravings for junk food.

That’s the upshot of new research out of Australia that found people who played Tetris on a smartphone for as little as three minutes at a time had substantially weaker cravings for food, as well as drugs, cigarettes, coffee, sex, and other activities.

Psychologists from Plymouth University and Queensland University of Technology, Australia, found that playing video games interferes with desires by occupying the mind with other concerns.

The findings, published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, suggest playing the game could help people to manage strong cravings.

“Playing Tetris decreased craving strength for drugs, food, and activities from 70 percent to 56 percent,” noted Jackie Andrade, from the School of Psychology and the Cognition Institute at Plymouth University. "This is the first demonstration that cognitive interference can be used outside the lab to reduce cravings for substances and activities other than eating.

"We think the Tetris effect happens because craving involves imagining the experience of consuming a particular substance or indulging in a particular activity. Playing a visually interesting game like Tetris occupies the mental processes that support that imagery; it is hard to imagine something vividly and play Tetris at the same time."

For the study, 31 undergraduate college students were prompted seven times a day via text message to report on any cravings they had. Fifteen members of the students were required to play Tetris on an iPod for three minutes, before reporting their craving levels again.

"The impact of Tetris on craving was consistent across the week and on all craving types," said Jon May, also of Plymouth University. "People played the game 40 times on average but the effect did not seem to wear off. This finding is potentially important because an intervention that worked solely because it was novel and unusual would have diminishing benefits over time as participants became familiar with it."