Eating Better: Politics and Strategy For The Dinner Table
Most parents are worried about getting their kids to eat healthier.  You could be wondering how to get yourself to eat more veggies, too. Brain Wansink, in Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
Re-engineering Your “Tablescape”
Use Smaller Plates and Skinny Glasses
Family-size packages and big plates manipulate our idea of the “consumption norm.”  Bigger bags and boxes lead us to (subconsciously) believe that a normal portion from them is bigger, consequently leading us to eat more.  However, the consumption norm can be retooled. It has been shown that by using smaller plates, the feeling of fullness can be achieved using smaller portions. 6 ounces of casserole will look like a puny appetizer on a twelve inch plate, but it looks like a very good amount on an 8 inch plate. Ditching the platters and re-bagging snacks into smaller ziplock bags can make the serving size trick serve us.
Back in Psychology 101 we learned that up until a certain age kids will always think there is more liquid in a tall, skinny glass than the short, wide glass-even if it was just poured from one to the other in front of them. Well, it turns out that we in some ways never really learned that lesson. When we pour ourselves a drink, we tend to pour ourselves more if it is into a shorter, wider glass. Even professional bartenders are foiled by the shape of the glass, and these are people whose livelihoods revolve around pouring the right amounts. So, to avoid extra liquid calories, keep the POM glasses (devilish marketing, that is) and donate the tumblers to the Salvation Army.
See No Evil, Eat Less Evil
Have the good stuff on the table for easy replating, bad stuff (heavy entree, meat, fatty sides) left in the kitchen and plated beforehand. By keeping those dishes in the kitchen, you make grabbing an extra portion more inconvenient. Because we are inherently lazy people the impulse to take another serving of the entree will be replaced with deciding if it’s worth the effort to get up and get more. Leave serving dishes in the kitchen, but keep veggies in the “pick me” center of the dinner table. Grabbing more is okay if it’s for green beans and carrots. Fashioning the dinner presentation in this way could also help you to mindlessly follow Wansink’s advice summarized by eating “20 percent less, 20 percent more”: Eat healthier and maybe lose a little weight by eating 20% less of the pasta dish, and replacing that with 20% more vegetables.
Stimulate Vegetable Intake with Variety
The taste buds get bored with eating the same thing bite after bite. This is called “sensory specific satiety.” You’ve probably heard some success stories from people using this theory: People on the grapefruit/cabbage soup diet end up losing some weight because they tire of eating the same thing meal after meal. Their tiredness translates into eating less grapefruit/cabbage soup, and losing weight. It’s boring and therefore a temporary solution.
You can have sensory specific satiety work in your favor by doing the opposite. Try serving a variety healthy vegetables. Even a variety in color is good enough to trick your brain into thinking you’re tasting new and exciting foods. (In a study using M&Ms, people took a lot more pieces when extra color varieties were added to the bowl.) Purple cauliflower, anyone? Having two or three side vegetables on the table during meals can keep you and the kids munching away on the good stuff.
Make Snack Size Official
Children, like adults, use external cues to suggest when they are finished eating. Leaving out a whole bag will cause adults and children alike to overeat. During snack time kids will want to eat more if they think there is more to be had. And, it’s been shown that they think there is no more around if a snack is served in a small baggie. In addition, following the consumption norm discussed earlier, serving snacks in a little bag or small Tupperware container will leave them more satisfied. By using the same bagging technique, you can ensure that your TV snack doesn’t turn family-sized as you munch away during a CSI marathon.
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I recommend Mindless Eating to anyone looking to explore the marriage of nutrition, marketing, and social science. With witty experiments and pragmatic advice, Brian Wansink shows that there truly can be better living through science.
February 16, 2009
Tags: change, food, food event, Health, moms, nutrition, obesity Posted in: Fun Food Facts, Health
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The Bottomless Soup Bowl Experiment | Food Bubbles - February 20, 2009
[...] more tips on altering the impact of environmental cues have on how much you eat, see this post on re-engineering your [...]
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