How to curb mindless eating

So what’s mindless eating?
External cues influence how much we eat.You pour more liquid into a short, wide glass than a tall, skinny glass. You eat 92 percent of anything you serve yourself. You eat 20 percent more food served family style rather than left on a side counter. People eating with one other person eat 30 to 35 percent more than they otherwise would. Having a snack within arm’s reach doubles how much of it you eat.

How can you know all that?
We’ve tested it all empirically. For instance, most people say they eat until their plate or bowl is empty, so we wondered what would happen if the bowl was never empty. We made a soup bowl that continuously refilled through a hole in the bottom attached to a hose from a 6-gallon vat. People with refillable bowls ate an average of 73 percent more soup than people who ate from a regular bowl, yet they didn’t think they had eaten more. They said, “How can I possibly feel full? I have half a bowl of soup left.”

How can this help you control your weight?
Our research has identified the “mindless margin” of eating. Going on a diet and cutting out 1,000 calories a day triggers feelings of hunger and deprivation. But a typical person can cut out 200 to 400 calories a day without noticing the difference. That may not seem like a lot, but if you make three 100-calorie cuts a day, at the end of a year you’ll weigh 30 pounds less. Move your candy dish. Get rid of your short, wide glasses. Use smaller dishes. Make some rules for yourself. Only allow yourself to eat a midmorning doughnut if you’ve already eaten a piece of fruit, which means you probably won’t be hungry for the doughnut. Serve the vegetables family style but not the mac and cheese.

At a restaurant, use the “pick two” strategy. Order a main course and only two of the following: bread, appetizer, dessert, and alcoholic drink. At a reception buffet, follow the “rule of two.” You can have whatever you want, but you have to use the smallest plate and can put only two things on it at one time. Always have something to drink in your hand, because that’s one less hand to eat with. —Brian Wansink,Ph.D.

Dr. Wansink is director of the Food and Brand Laboratory at Cornell University and author of “Mindless Eating” (2007, Bantam Books).

Comments

[betty kitt]

we find excellent advice on many health issues in Consumer Reports.org

Pat

[Larry Davis]

I have placed my faith in Consumers Reports information for 55 years and very seldom been disappointed.

LD

[Florence]

Overall, an informative and interesting piece. But ah, the dangers of statistics in the hands of the unwary! "cut 100 calories three times a day and at the end of a year you'll weigh 30 lbs less!" it says above. This would only be true if your current consumption levels were exactly in balance with your activity, so that without the cuts you would neither gain nor lose. If you eat at a rate that gains you thirty pounds in a year (and many do!) your cuts will just mean no gain this year. If you're eating more, you could cut those 300 calories and still gain weight! Just not as much as you would have. C'mon, CU, even the truth tellers have to proofread!

[Lesa]

I agree with Florence, if only that statement were true. "Cut 100 calories three times a day and at the end of a year you'll weigh 30 lbs less!" Fat people across America would be so happy. And besides that, wouldn't healthy thin people waste away to nothing if it were true? Jeez. And I am not sure about this theory with the short fat glass vs. the tall skinny one either. Personally, I tend to fill the tall skinny ones to the top because they look smaller. The shorter fat glasses give the drink more motion and it's more likely to slosh over the side so I don't ever fill those all the way up. The tall skinny ones don't slosh as bad, just a couple ripples--that's it. Test this, you'll find I am correct.

[Kevin]

Dr. Wansink's book "Mindless Eating," is a great read. I'm in the middle of it right now and it's interesting to see how one's environment and other variables cause overeating. For anyone who wants to understand why we eat as much as we do and how our environment (retaurant atmosphere, plate size, whether we dine alone or with friends, etc.) impacts our eating habits should pick up the book.

[Clara NiiSka]

Seems to me that some food additives - particularly flavor-enhancers like MSG - can act as a kind of 'override' to our physiological appetite controls. I would guess that people who have problems controlling their weight are more vulnerable, i.e. if CR was going to do comparisons of the 'amount eaten' of MSG-'seasoned' food and the 'same' food without MSG, test subjects' history of difficulties in controlling their weight be one of the significant variables in data analysis.