THE ARTICLE
"We're a nation of mindless eaters.", says Brian Wansink, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, "We do so many things during the day that when it comes to food we can just nibble and nibble and nibble, and eat and eat and eat."
According to Dr. Wansink, the mind is often more to blame for over-eating than the stomach, and that something as simple as reducing the diameter of our plates could stop us from eating excessively.
"Our studies show the bigger the plate is, the more people serve, typically to the level of about 25 to 28 percent more," commented Dr. Wansink. "The best way to mindlessly eat less is to get rid of your large plates, or get rid of your large serving bowls."
It's not just the plates that are deceiving us about portion sizes. In two studies carried out by Dr. Wansink and his colleagues, it was revealed that drinking glasses can't be trusted either. A group of 167 people, both children and adults, were given either tall, slender glasses or short, wide glasses. The subjects that were given the shorter wider glasses ended up pouring 76% more juice into their glasses than the group given tall, slender glasses even though they believed that they were pouring less. This oddity is due to a visual illusion called the vertical-horizontal illusion: humans focus more on height than on width, which makes it more likely that we'll pour more into wide glasses than into tall ones while at the same time believing we've poured less. It's a handy little trick for pubs that want to make their patrons believe they're getting more for their money but it's a malicious illusion when it comes to keeping your weight down.
Another peculiar issue in overeating is how humans react to foods that are labelled "fat-free". Dr. Wansink has found that snacks that come with the "fat-free" or "low-fat" label actually cause consumers to end up ingesting MORE calories than they would if they had chosen the normal variety. These reduced fat labels seem to induce people to mindlessly overeat their product by essentially switching off their critical thinking. The consumer believes he/she is "health-conscious" and doesn't worry about eating too much of the product. Often times people will overeat a low-fat or fat-free snack they don't actually enjoy because they perceive them as healthier. Dr. Wansink advises people that are going to indulge to just eat something they truly enjoy but at half the amount they would normally eat.
Not paying attention to what you're eating is another major problem in mindless overeating. Since the stomach isn't really designed to accurately track the amount of food being eaten, seeing what you eat is crucial. Generally, the stomach takes around 20 minutes to register that it's full before sending out satiation signals. When students participated in an all-you-can-eat chicken wing buffet, they ate fairly much continuously as long as the plates were regularly cleared away.
Dr. Wansink has some advice to avoid the pitfalls of "invisible food":
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Make sure that when you eat at a buffet you fill your plate with all the food you plan to eat, including dessert.
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Don't plan to go back for seconds or set up your plate with smaller amounts in anticipation of returning to the buffet table.
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Don't snack directly from a box or package. Put the snack into a separate dish.
If you see what you've eaten, you will eat less.
Television is also an insidious enemy in the battle against the bulge not only for drastically reducing a subject's activity level but also for inducing a state of mindless eating where the brain does not seem to register the intake of food. According to some studies, people consume 40 percent more food while parked in front of the tube.
"We often end up eating more because we simply eat to the pace of the program, or we eat until the program is over." said Dr. Wansink. Television often distracts us from seeing what we eat, which as we've seen above is another cause for mindless over-eating.
The best advice when it comes to trying to reduce your food intake is to make eating an engaging and thoughtful process. Set aside time to prepare, cook, and enjoy food. Keep your plates small and your glasses high and experience each bite. Eat tasty food in reduced amounts rather than tasteless food in larger amounts, and avoid combining the pleasures of eating with other entertainment or distractions. Make the act of eating a conscious one.
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