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Mindless eating
The best diet is the one you don't know you are on.
I am not surprised to read this:
When eating in group of four or eight, light eaters ate more, and heavy eaters ate less.
Those are both from Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.
Here is a New York Times article about the book; it summarizes the book's practical tips. Never let yourself forget how much you are eating. You might also use smaller bowls and wrap transparent candy containers in aluminum foil.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 18, 2006 at 05:44 AM in Books, Science | Permalink
Comments
"Never let yourself forget how much you are eating."
I would say, just the opposite -- never *think* about how much you are eating. The human body (and mind) are not designed to maintain body weight by conscious calculation of the right amount to eat. So eat healthy foods, get enough exercize, and let your appetite mechanism take care of worrying about counting calories (that's what it's for).
Posted by: Slocum at Oct 18, 2006 7:46:01 AM
The trouble with relying on one's appetite mechanism alone is that, in the mordern world there are so many artificial stimuli that increase that appetite. What would have worked for a cave person doesn't work today.
Posted by: Nitpicker at Oct 18, 2006 11:59:24 AM
Evolutionary Fitness: a Tyler's post about marathons took me to Art de Vanu's blog on diet and exercise.
It simply works. There are no recipes, just some simple principles and a scientific mind backing and researching them. With less exercising and a change of habit about nutrition led me to lose 12 pounds and excellent shape. It took several months but it was no work at all.
Read De Vany (http://www.arthurdevany.com/). It's fun to read and he is got all you need to shape up easily
Posted by: Eduardo Pegurier at Oct 18, 2006 2:17:19 PM
That book also has some intersting studies on the impact of wine labels on our perception of the wine's quality and the quality of the meal it accompanied.
"Forty-one diners at the Spice Box restaurant in Urbana, Illinois were given a free glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany a $24 prix-fixe French meal. Half the bottles claimed to be from Noah’s Winery in California. The labels on the other half claimed to be from Noah’s Winery in North Dakota. In both cases, the wine was an inexpensive Charles Shaw wine.
Those drinking what they thought was California wine, rated the wine and food as tasting better, and ate 11% more of their food. They were also more likely to make return reservations.
It comes down to expectations. If you think a wine will taste good, it will taste better than if you think it will taste bad. People didn’t believe North Dakota wine would taste good, so it had a double curse – it hurt both the wine and the entire meal."
http://www.boxwines.org/articles/wine-label-power.htm
Posted by: Pablo H. at Aug 10, 2007 8:27:47 AM
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