Monday, June 21, 2010

wtb - week 16

"The best diet is the one you don't know you're on."  I like it.

This is the mantra of the the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink, PH.D.  So far, I've learned that eating in the U.S. is a mind game.  Every package, recipe, menu, serving presentation, plate size, grocery store and restaurant is designed to get us to eat more.  Typically, we use visual cues for how much to eat.  If we see that there is more, then we eat more.  If we have bigger plates, bowls and glasses then we eat more.  If we see that we've eaten alot, then often we will stop eating.  And even though we may say, I'm smart and have educated myself about food, we can still fall for the illusions of what we see rather than thinking seriously about how much and what we weat.  Wansink has lots of proof up his sleeve and cites the many interesting studies he has conducted or read.  Interesting food for thought.  Yes it's a pun, and a bad one.

I'm hoping to learn to re-program my mind when it comes to food and not fall for the gimmicks. 

Which serving size do you want?

1 comment:

Cha said...

Love the smaller plate idea; I think we'll try this consciously. We have square bowls (Asian style), and I've noticed, I eat less when we eat off of them. go figure.