Eating With Our Eyes
People watching the Super Bowl who saw how much they had already eaten – in this case, leftover chicken-wing bones – ate 27 % less than people who had no such environmental cues, finds a new Cornell study.
The difference between the two groups — those eating at a table where leftover bones accumulated compared with those whose leftovers were removed — was greater for men than for women.
“The results suggest that people restrict their consumption when evidence of food consumed is available to signal how much food they have eaten,”
said Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor the author of the book “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.”
The study, included 50 graduate students at a sports bar where an open buffet featured chicken wings during the Super Bowl; some tables were bused and some were left unbused.
To use environmental cues to curb overeating and overdrinking, Wansink suggested that college parties could encourage (or require) fresh plastic glasses for each drink and that the glasses be stacked as they accumulate for each person; dinner parties could use fresh glasses for refills while empty glasses, or even empty bottles, are left on the table.
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RSS Trackback URL 10. April 2007 (17:50)Filed under: Nutrition, Strange Diets