Rein In Accidental Eating
by Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E.
When I first read that the average person makes 200 food-related decisions everyday, 180 of which are made subconsciously, I dismissed both numbers as ridiculously exaggerated. After all, we’ve got only three meals and a couple of snacks, so how could we have 200 options in a mere 24 hours?
Then, not too long ago, I was sitting at an obesity research meeting attentively listening to various speakers discussing brain chemistry and appetite, and I glimpsed my hand reaching for a mint. Just an hour before, I had eaten a delicious and filling breakfast. I wasn’t hungry. So why did I go for the candy?
I had grabbed it subconsciously merely because it was there, but then, smartly and consciously, I put it back. The urge to pop it into my mouth hit me a number of times through the next few hours and next several speakers. That’s when I realized that Brian Wansink, a food psychologist and director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, was on to something. We really do make 200 decisions about what, when and how much to eat every day. We do it when we walk by the samples at the warehouse store, smell the pretzels in the mall, sit down to an oversized burger, spot cookies on the kitchen counter or a bowl of chocolates on a co-worker’s desk. Each time we decide, either consciously or subconsciously, to eat all of it, some of it or none of it.
We’re faced with food, food smells, food-pushers and food ads all day long. So now it’s time to fat-proof our environment. Once we recognize the cues that set us up to overeat, we can do something about them. We can’t unplug the “Hot Now” sign outside the donut store, but we can choose a different route to work.
Below are five food pitfalls and some handy solutions to keep yourself from caving in.
Trap #1: We are conveniently surrounded with food – and we love food!
The easier it is to reach food, the more we will eat. To prove this point, researchers placed chocolates in the workspaces of several secretaries.
- When the candies were in plain sight and within easy reach on their desks, the secretaries ate an average of nine pieces a day.
- When the secretaries had to reach into their drawers for the candy, they ate only six pieces each day.
- When the chocolates were placed six feet from their desks, the secretaries had only four.
The Solution: Keep tempting foods out of sight and out of reach. Don’t put sweets in your pantry; you’ll see them every time you reach for a can of corn or a box of cereal. Hide them instead in a hard-to-reach cabinet, maybe the one over the refrigerator that requires a stool to reach. At the very least, keep enticing foods wrapped in non-see- through packaging.
Stop second and third helpings of meats and starches by leaving serving dishes several feet away on the kitchen counter. Use this trick to your advantage with fruits and veggies. Place them smack in the middle of the table, in easy reach of all family members.
Trap #2: We’re faced with too many choices.
Visit a friend for dessert and chances are good that you’ll be tempted with more than just one type of cookie or pastry. Go to a Super Bowl party and be faced with a room full of high-calorie, fat-laden snacks and dips. In both of these scenarios, the number of desserts or dishes served will likely influence how much you eat. Imagine sitting in front of a plate of chocolate chip cookies or a plate of chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter, double chocolate and macadamia nut cookies. It’s easier to limit yourself to just one cookie if your hostess offers only the chocolate chip.
The Solution: Avoid tantalizing your taste buds with a medley of flavors. Stick to just one type of dessert, and choose either potato chips or cheese curls, but not both. Our taste buds get bored when presented with the same flavors, so you’ll subconsciously eat less. Satisfy your innate desire for variety by indulging in all the colorful fruits and vegetables nature supplies. Don’t let yourself be lured by the all-you-can-eat buffet. If you find yourself there anyway, choose a great variety of salad vegetables and other low-calorie favorites, but limit other foods to just two or three dishes.
Trap #3: We let our eyes tell us how much to eat.
When nutrition science professors and graduate students at the University of Illinois came to an ice cream social, they were unaware that they were really participating in a research study. Each guest was given either a medium-size bowl or a large bowl, and was invited to take as much as he or she wanted of four flavors of ice cream. Those with the large bowls dished 31 percent (or 127 calories) more ice cream than the guests with the smaller bowls. If guests held both a large dish and a large scoop, they took a whopping 57 percent more ice cream.
Now imagine that it’s dinner time. A 4-ounce steak on a lunch plate looks like more to chew than the same steak on a dinner plate. Glass shape makes a difference, too. The average person pours much less beverage into a tall, skinny glass than into a short, squat one.
The Solution: Get rid of your short, fat glasses and use only the tall, skinny ones. Or if you’re trying to get your kids to drink more milk, for example, let them pour it into the short glasses. Likewise, set the dinner table with lunch-size plates and offer desserts on even smaller plates, so everyone serves themselves less. Having a green salad or a fruit salad that you want the family to really dig into? Put it on the table with large bowls and spoons.
Trap #4: We eat what and how much those around us eat.
If we’re influenced by the size or shape of a dish, then it’s not too surprising that we’re also influenced by friends and family. When we’re enjoying the conversation and the company, it’s easy to lose track of how much we’re eating. Monitoring our food intake takes second stage to having fun. We might sit down to a meal with the best intentions of eating healthfully, slowly and mindfully, but lose all focus when our companions order drinks, cream sauces and desserts. Drinks, cream sauces and desserts do sound good after all, so that’s what we order (and eat), too.
The Solution: Avoid the influence of others by being the first to order in restaurants. Make it your mission to be the slowest eater at the table. Use chopsticks to pace yourself in Asian restaurants. Sit next to the person who eats the most healthfully, and be the last one to start. Decide the appropriate amount to eat before your first bite.
Trap #5: We need a reality check on portions.
Over the last 30 years, food portions have ballooned in restaurants, at home and in single-serving packages. The average fast-food cheeseburger was once 5.9 ounces. In 1996, it swelled to 7.3 ounces and an additional 131 calories. The average portion of salty snacks like potato chips served up 132 calories in 1977, but grew to 225 calories in 1996. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2000, women consumed 335 calories more each day than they had 29 years earlier. Men ate an average of an additional 168 calories. Unless balanced by exercise, these extra calories theoretically translate into a yearly gain of 35 pounds for women and 17.5 pounds for men.
Researchers at Penn State University demonstrated that larger portions directly relate to increased calorie consumption without a similar increase in satiety. When they served lunch with varying sizes of a deli-style sandwich to study participants, both men and women ate more as the size of the sandwich grew, even if they didn’t finish the sandwich. Men consumed 186 more calories and women consumed 74 more calories when they were presented with a 12-inch sandwich compared to a similar 8-inch sandwich. Surprisingly, they rated their level of fullness the same, regardless of how much they ate.
The Solution: Look for snacks in the ever-popular 100-calorie packs, and limit yourself to one bag. If all you’ve got are large bags of chips or candies, for instance, measure out a serving and eat from a dish. Never eat directly from the bag. Don’t compare your servings to restaurant meals. Rather, take your cue from the MyPyramid food guidance system. You’ll find the appropriate portions at www.mypyramid.gov.
If you’re trying to cut back on breads and sweets, search for small sandwich rolls, muffins and cookies. Buy ice cream bars and sticks instead of tubs that require scooping. But to increase the amount of fruit you eat each day, carefully choose large apples, pears, peaches, plums and oranges.
Sources:
Mindless Eating. Brian Wansink, Ph.D. Bantom Dell, New York, New York 2006.
Rolls, BJ et al, Increasing the Portion Size of a Sandwich Increases Energy Intake, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, March 2004.
Nielson SJ, Popkin BM. Patterns and Trends in Food Portion Sizes, 1977-1978, Journal of the American Medical Association, January 2003.
CDC Publications, Trends in Intakes of Energy and Macronutrients – United States, 1971-2000, February 2004.
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