Overeating is one cause of our present scourge of obesity. So for those of us with a weight problem, anything that can help us limit our eating is welcome news.
The winning strategy can be as simple as eating out of a smaller bowl, or choosing the right kind of foods that will satisfy your craving for more.
Barbara Rolls at Pennsylvania State University and Brian Wansink at the University of Illinois (at Cornell since 2005) have done clever experiments to reveal how environmental factors unconsciously affect how much we eat.
In one experiment, for example, 85 nutrition experts attending an ice cream social in honor of a colleague were randomly given either a small or a larger bowl and a small or larger ice-cream scoop with which to serve themselves.
Without being aware of it, these nutrition experts served themselves significantly more ice cream when given larger bowls and scoops.
Besides using smaller bowls and plates to reduce serving sizes and consumption, here are some other suggestions from Rolls and Wansink on ways to reduce your food intake:
- Use smaller spoons when serving oneself or when eating from a bowl.
- Replace short, wide glasses with tall, narrow ones.
- Be aware that soft music and candlelight tend to make people linger longer over the meal and thus eat more.
- When eating out, have the breadbasket removed before you’ve completed the meal; also have part of your entrée wrapped up early to take home.
- Eat only when sitting down at the table and avoid the distractions of newspapers, television, or the radio.
- Store tempting foods in inconvenient locations, such as at the top of a cupboard, and wrap them up in foil to make them less visible.
- Place healthier, low-density foods at the front of the refrigerator and less healthy foods at the back.
- Replace the cookie jar with a fruit bowl.
- Serve small dinner portions to start with, and remove the serving bowls or platters from the table to keep second helpings at a distance.
- Keep the office candy dish out of reach or out of sight — or do away with it altogether.
Besides these environmental strategies, your choice of which foods to eat can make the difference in how satisfied you feel. In her new book, “The Volumetrics Eating Plan,” Dr. Rolls bases her recommendations on evidence that people tend to eat roughly the same weight of food each day.
She emphasizes satisfying hunger by eating larger amounts of foods with the lowest energy density (a food’s energy density is based on the number of calories per given weight). For example, two cups of grapes and ¼ cup of raisins each contain about 100 calories, but the grapes’ larger volume is more likely to satisfy hunger.
Rolls suggests that beginning a meal with a large portion of a food having a low energy density, such as salad, will decrease food intake during the remainder of the meal. If snacks like potato chips are kept in the house, buying only small bags will reduce the number of chips eaten at one time.
Better yet, instead of purchasing such snacks, place ready-to-eat carrots or celery sticks at the front of the refrigerator so you and your kids will reach for them first