Mindless Eating
Melissa Bess
Nutrition and Health Education
Specialist
FNEP STAFF TRAINING ONLY, DO NOT USE WITH
FNEP PARTICIPANTS
07/2007
Outline
• Introduction
• Mindless margin
• The forgotten food
• Surveying the table-scape
• Hidden persuaders around us
• Re-scripting your dinner
• The name game
• In the mood for comfort food
Outline
• Nutritional gatekeepers
• Fast food fever
• Mindlessly eating better
• Questions?
• Fad Diets
By Brian Wansick, Ph.D.
http://www.mindlesseating.org
Introduction
• We make over 200 food decisions each
day!
• Food is a great pleasure in life, not
something we should compromise.
• We need to shift our surroundings to work
WITH our lifestyle not AGAINST it.
• The best diet is the one you don’t know
you are on.
Mindless margin
• Why do we overeat foods that aren’t
good?
• 2 studies:
– Stale popcorn – those with larger buckets ate
173 calories more than those with medium
buckets
– Same meals, same wines. Different labels,
different reactions.
Mindless margin
• 100 – 200 less calories a day would
prevent weight gain in most people
• We probably won’t miss these calories
• Cutting out favorite foods = bad idea
• Cutting down on how much we eat them
is do-able
Mindless margin
• Strategy #1 –
– Think 20% less when you start your meal,
probably won’t miss it
– For fruits and veggies = think 20% more
The forgotten food
• Study on chicken wings – clean plate,
clean table, get more, eat more.
• Orange jumpsuits in prison = weight gain
because they don’t notice 1 lb a week gain
• We eat the volume we want, not the
calories
• Parisians stop eating when no longer
hungry, not when plate or glass is empty
The forgotten food
• Strategy #2 – See all you eat
– See it before you eat it
– Put snack on separate plate and leave box in
the kitchen
– See it while you eat it
– Leave empty glasses on table, leave food on
plates without clearing food
Surveying the table-scape
• We consume more from bigger packages,
whatever the product
• We think we get more from tall, skinny
glasses than short, wide glasses
• Bigger bowls = bigger servings
• We eat more when there is variety
Surveying the table-scape
• Strategy #3 – Be your own table-scaper
–
–
–
–
Mini-size boxes and bowls
Use mid-size or small plates, rather than large
Think slender with glasses
People tend to pour 30% more into a wider
glass than a slender one
Hidden persuaders around us
• Visibility – people will eat more candy
from a clear dish than a white one
• Make healthy foods easy to see and less
healthy foods harder to see
• Move candy dish further away,
convenience = impulse
Hidden persuaders around us
• Strategy #4 – Make overeating a hassle,
not a habit
– Leave the serving dishes in the kitchen, put
salad and veggies on table
– Put tempting foods in the back of the cabinet
or in a basement, inconvenient
– Repackage jumbo sizes into smaller containers
– Hide the extras from view
– Reseal packages. Tape works better than a clip
Re-scripting your dinner
• Be the last to start eating
• Pace yourself with slowest eater
• Leave some food on your plate, helps
avoid one more serving
• Think about how much you will eat before
the meal
• Ask breadbasket to be taken away or other
side of table
Re-scripting your dinner
• Pick two rule: appetizer, drink, dessert –
pick only two
• Best part of a dessert is the first 2 bites
• Strategy #5 – Create distraction-free eating
scripts
–
–
–
–
Distract yourself before you snack
Eat snacks in only one room
Dish out how much you want before you eat
Minimize distractions
The name game
• We taste what we think we will taste
(strawberry vs. chocolate yogurt)
• Lemon jello with red food coloring, said it
was cherry, no one suspected it
• Menu names and descriptions, lead to
more appeal and tastier
• Presentation is key
• Brand loyalty
The name game
• Strategy #6 – Create expectations that
make you a better cook
– Add two-words that are descriptive to the
name of the meal or food (Cajun, homemade,
succulent)
– Spend time on prepping the atmosphere – soft
lights, soft music, tablecloth, nice glasses, etc.
In the mood for comfort food
• Comfort food connections are subconsciously
formed
Physical hunger
Emotional hunger
Strikes below neck (i.e.
stomach growling)
Above the neck (i.e.
“taste” for ice cream)
Occurs several hours
after meal
Unrelated to time
Goes away when full
Persists despite fullness
Eating leads to feeling
of satisfaction
Eating leads to guilt and
shame
In the mood for comfort food
• Strategy #7 – Make comfort foods more
comforting
– Don’t deprive yourself
– Keep comfort foods, but in smaller amounts.
– Pair healthier foods with positive events.
Celebrate with strawberries and a small bowl
of ice creams rather than a chocolate brownie
sundae.
Nutritional gatekeepers
• Gatekeepers controls food decisions
• Children start learning what they like and
don’t like before 4 months old, due to cues
and reactions by parents
• Use positive associations with foods to
make children more likely to eat them
Nutritional gatekeepers
• Strategy #8 – Crown yourself as the official
gatekeeper
– Be a good marketer
– Offer variety
– Use the half-plate rule – half the plate should
be veggies and fruits, the other half protein
and starch
– Put snacks in containers and hide extras
Fast-food fever
• Healthy restaurants = free reign?
• Reduced fat or low fat really better?
• 10-20 rule
– Thin drinks = about 10 calories per ounce
– Thick drinks = about 20 calories per ounce
• We underestimate the calories we drink by
30%
Fast-food fever
• Strategy # 9 – Portion size me
– Healthy restaurants – not everything is
always healthy, watch the extras
– Think small, or share
– Food companies could create packages with
pause points – i.e. Every 7th Pringle chip is
colored a different color
– Adding air or water can add volume but not
calories
Mindlessly eating better
• Eating better means different things to
different people
• Reengineer your food environment
– Food trade-offs – I can eat X if I do Y, I can
have popcorn at the movie, if I have a healthy
salad for dinner, etc.
– Food policies – No 2nd helpings of X, never eat
in front of the tv, only half-size desserts, etc.
Mindlessly eating better
• The power of three
– Three small 100 calorie changes per day is doable
– Takes 28 days to break a habit
– Keep a log or checklist, so you don’t forget
• The best diet is the one you don’t know
you’re on
Questions?