According to Brian Wansink, PhD, who is a consumer psychologist, simple changes in one’s surroundings can make him lose weight. In a plenary address entitled "Modifying the Food Environment: From Mindless Eating to Mindlessly Eating Better", presented at the American Psychological Association's 119th Annual Convention, he has suggested that the environment in which we spend considerable time is filled with hidden traps. If people become conscious of these traps and make certain changes around them, it can result in eating healthier and losing weight without trying too hard.
Wansink has busted several myths about eating behaviors. He says that something as simple as the size of a bowl would influence how much an informed person eats. He analyzed the amount of popcorn that an average moviegoer eats. After analysis of 168 such persons, he found that people opting for fresh popcorn from extra large containers ended up eating 45% more than people who opted for a large container. Similarly, people ate 34% more stale popcorn than fresh popcorn without realizing about the extra amount that they are consuming.
People who opt for tall, skinny glasses consumed 37% less liquids as compared to people who go for short, wide glasses of the same volume. Another study showed that children were likely to eat twice as much cereal when they were given a 16 ounce bowl rather than an 8 inch bowl. Switching to a smaller bowl or replacing the short, wide glasses with tall, skinny ones would automatically result in reduced consumption of calories. People also live in a fool’s paradise when they say they know when they are full and stop before they overeat. In another study, people with bottomless bowls ate 73 percent more than those with normal bowls, without realizing that they had been overeating. The inference drawn is that let your mind, rather than your stomach, decide when you are satiated.
Wansink believes that people can lose as much as 2 pounds per month by making these simple informed changes in their surroundings. Small changes like eating off salad plates, keeping healthy foods within easy reach and unhealthy foods out of sight and eating without watching television can result in considerable weight lose without sweating.
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