I'm on the seefood diet, I see food, I eat it.
Brian Wansink is the author of "Mindless Eating" and head of Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab.
In Wansink's book he conducted several experiments that show we are powerless against food.
We think we eat when we are hungry, or because the food tastes good, but really we eat because we can.
In one experiment, Wansink placed candy jars of chocolate in office workers' cubicles for a month. Then, he moved the candy six feet away. Simply having the candy closer meant the office workers ate five more candies a day. That adds up to 125 calories a day, or 12 pounds a year.
Every time you see the candy, you have to make a decision not to eat it.
In another experiment, Wansink divided a group of 150 test subjects into three, giving a third canisters of potato chips with every seventh chip dyed red. Another third received canisters with every 14th chip dyed. Other ate from canisters with no dyed chips.
Test subjects with no dyed chips ate an average of 23 chips; those with every 14th chip dyed red ate an average of 15; those with every seventh chip dyed red ate an average of 10.
The red chips provided what Wansink calls a "pause point," an interruption that forces the eater to ask whether he or she wants to eat more. For this reason, Wansink says the 100-calorie containers of chips or cookies work to help 70 percent of people eat less. When they finish the container, they pause and ask themselves whether they want more.
You will eat more if you are eating:
family style, with serving bowls on the table
right from a bag or carton
on a bigger plate
in front of the TV
I guess this explains the cupcake and york peppermint patty episodes.
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