Mindless Eating

Mindless Eating

Do you think you make over 200 food related decisions a day?
Heck, no. There's...what...three meals a day...maybe a snack or
two...an after work drink... If you're like me you're thinking a dozen
at the most.
If you're like me you are so wrong. That is one of the messages
of Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. An
act we might think of as one decision is actually a myriad of
choices. Let's say you go out for supper instead of cooking at home.
You take the family instead of going solo. You feel guilty for a
recent burger and fries splurge so you decide Subway would be a
healthier alternative. You have ruled out not only Ronald McDonald's
domain but fancier sit down bistros. Just a sub or the meal deal
involving chips or cookie and an obscenely large soda? Diet or
regular? Eat in or take out? If you eat the meal at home are you
seated at the table chatting about your day or zoning out in front of
the TV? Heck, even if you stroll by a coworker's desk without taking
one of the mini candy bars from her ever full bowl you are at some
level of consciousness deciding to resist temptation. Yeah, maybe
that 200 number doesn't seem to far fetched.
Wansink's next message will be a much harder sell for most of
us. Most of these decisions are made at a level we're not even aware
of. Many clues in our environment and psyche lead to certain
behaviors. If you eat at Subway your choice of a healthy alternative
can make you feel safer in adding the cookie/chips and soda. Eating
with others often means eating more or less food than eating solo.
Eating in front of a tv set or with a book usually involves eating
more than letting the food be the focus of attention.
People see me as the consumate food decision maker. I'm a
vegetarian which means no meat or meat by products. It's amazing how
many innocuous looking foods include gelatin. I prefer fresh to
processed and local to from a distance. I'd much rather hit the
farmer's market than the big box store. However, with me the people
factor is in control big time. If I eat alone I eat a bowl of salad
or soup or something usually with a book in hand. It's a to do like
washing towels before we run out or changing Joey's litter box. So
when the kids are with me I chow down on stuff I wouldn't otherwise
think of due to the pleasure of their company (just devoured boxed mac
and cheese with Katie) and at my church lunch, in the company of all
those wonderful, English speaking PEOPLE I eat like the title
character in Jaws.
According to Wansink it's the subliminal level at which food
decisions are made that leads to incremental weight gain over the
decades and the downfall of diet after diet, especially those based on
deprivation. However, you can make mindless work for you if you alter
clues. Smaller dinner plates result in less eating. Putting the
worst choices at a distance and the better for you ones within arms
reach can alter the composition of snacks. Taking longer than twenty
minutes for a meal lets your brain register satiety.
Mindless Eating is based on a plethora of carefully controlled
experiments. However, it is a fun and engaging read. I'd recommend
it to anyone old enough to make her/his own food decisions.
Just one grain of salt. If you are a woman pick the BMI over
body frame rule of thumb in picking ideal weight. I tried both and
found the second dangerous. I stand 5" tall and weigh 108 pounds.
BMI gives me 21.09 which is right in the middle of normal. By body
frame I am 18 pounds overweight and should be shooting for 90. I
don't think so.
On a personal note, I was pleased to see that a number of changes
Wansink suggested were ones I'd undertaken. I serve as many meals as
I can on dishes midway between saucer and dinner plate. I have the
chip type stuff in the hardest to reach shut cabinet and better stuff
in easy reach and plain sight.
A great big shout out goes out to small organic farmers who sell in
farmers markets and make local produce and cheese and baked goods
without a dozen questionable additives available to those of us who
live nearby. If you are one of the fortunate few and financially able
please, please, PLEASE help them stay in business.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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