Mindless Eating
July 23rd, 2007 by Y.G.Because we can’t always do everything alone nor instinctively know everything there is to do, sometimes a good read about weight loss and eating matters can be really worth it. And by ‘good read’, I don’t mean an Nth book detailing a specific diet, but something more general–something more eye-opening, in a way.
So, today, I’m going to write about a book that I’ve read a few weeks ago, and that has been quite interesting. Said book is Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink, and mainly deals with how our minds can very easily be tricked by the size of our plates or of other food containers. While this goes hand in hand with the matter of portion control (which is, after all, something very evident in theory, but not so much in practice), it also shows that even the ‘highest minds’ may fall into the traps of a slightly bigger bowl or spoon. Indeed, Wansink has led several experiences, notably in a restaurant, to see if people would naturally eat more if their plates were bigger; it turned out they did, and that it happens way more often than we’d think, as convinced as we all are that “WE can’t be fooled by such petty things”.
Well, let’s face it: we CAN, and we WILL, if we’re not very careful about it. To quote the author himself:
A second result is that most people think they are too smart to be influenced by candy dishes, television, or the shape of a glass. When show someone that they ate 31% more because we gave them a large scoop at the ice cream social, they will deny it. That’s what is so astonishing. No one wants to admit they were tricked by something as mundane as the size of a scoop or the shape of a glass. That’s what makes these so dangerous to our diets.
And that’s why such a book is interesting in and of itself. The information and research it gives us about how so many of us overeat not because we’re hungry per se, but because social gatherings and containers’ size insidiously make us, can be pretty useful to help us gain more control over our habits. After all, knowledge is already half the success, in a way. We do have the ability to make small changes that will make our mindless eating less dangerous to us. Sure, it won’t help anyone lose tons of weight in little time–it’s not a diet–but in the end, these changes will make a difference no matter what.
You can find more bout the book itself and the ‘Mindless Eating challenge’ at http://www.mindlesseating.org/. It will give you a good insight about it all.
