"Why We Eat So Much?"... interesting article... GOT MY NUMBER! :)

Why Do We Eat So Much? From Harvard Health Publications It's simple: Blame the environment! A nice, cozy atmosphere, big helpings, the way the food is arranged -- seemingly small variables like these may go a long way toward explaining the American penchant for overeating. Research into bad nutrition is almost limitless, but there's also a smaller pool of fascinating studies on how food consumption is influenced by the "eating environment," whi*****ludes factors like ambience and the number of people at a meal. Experts have also studied the effects of the "food environment" -- the way food is provided or presented. Many of us spend an awful lot of time fretting about what's in our food; these environmental studies suggest we should pay more attention to the cir****tances in which we eat. Crowd appeal Dim lights and soft music can make for a romantic meal, but according to some research, these amenities also encourage overeating. Yes, to eat fast food is to court nutritional disaster. But an unhurried meal can also add calories by way of desserts and extra drinks. When we linger over food, we are likely to eat more of it without even noticing. And if you settle in and get comfortable, you become less self-conscious, less inhibited, and more likely to keep on eating. Obviously eating has a social component; so many social occasions involve a meal or a snack. Studies have shown just how influential a little company can be. For example, researchers at Georgia State University in Atlanta have found that when people eat with others, they consume 44% more food than when they eat alone. They've shown just how much meal size increases depending on the number of people present. A meal eaten with one other person tends to be 33% larger than a meal eaten alone. With two, it is 47% larger and with three, 58% larger. If these studies are right, when you have Thanksgiving dinner, you're likely to eat nearly twice as much with seven or more companions as you would if you were by yourself (we're not suggesting, though, that anyone should eat Thanksgiving dinner alone). Who you eat with also makes a difference. People tend to eat more with spouses, family members, and friends than they do with strangers. And for women, though not for men, food consumption varies with the gender of their companions: Women eat 13% more when eating with men than they do when eating with other women. See-food Just seeing food whets the appetite. Brian Wansink, a researcher at the University of Illinois, found that people gobbled Hershey's chocolate kisses at a 46% faster rate when the candy was kept in a clear jar rather than an opaque one. Other experiments show that sandwiches in transparent wrapping go much faster than those in wrapping that you can't see through. Not surprisingly, putting food within easy reach also promotes consumption. A study of the office candy bowl, also using chocolate kisses as bait, found that administrative assistants ate 5.6 more of them each day when the bowl was on their desks instead of two yards away. In cafeterias, milk consumption shoots up when the dispenser is nearby. People drink more water if the pitcher is put on the table. Variety spices our lives, but it can also induce us to overeat. People eat more yogurt if they have a choice of three flavors instead of one. In another candy experiment, people given a mix of 10 colors ate 43% more than those given a mix of 7 colors. (Maybe this explains why M&M's are so appealing.) In a similar study, researchers offered jars containing six flavors of jelly beans in either an ordered or a random arrangement. Randomness gave an impression of variety, causing people to eat 70% more. This same psychology can be used to promote healthy eating. Salads are a great way to induce people to eat more vegetables. More galore Package size can have a surprisingly strong influence on how much a person eats, no matter how unpalatable the food inside might be. In a study in a Philadelphia suburb, moviegoers were given popcorn in two different-sized buckets. People with the larger buckets ate 33% more, even though the popcorn in both buckets was two weeks old. The wholesale stores of the world have made it much easier to stockpile food. The gargantuan packages they sell may cause people to eat more, partly because overflowing pantries and cupboards leave an abundance of food in plain sight -- or, as researchers term it, "visually salient." Wansink and a colleague monitored the food consumption of families for two weeks after their homes were stocked with eight different types of food. The families tore through the ready-to-eat food, but after eight days, consumption leveled off, partly because the food was now less visible, say the researchers. Family members might also have gotten tired of the taste. Plate, bowl, and cup size are important in this context because they help us judge how much we are eating. In one experiment, researchers had people eat soup from bowls that were secretly connected to a hose that added more soup while they ate. They ate over 75% more from these "bottomless bowls" than from normal bowls. Six tips for controlling how much you eat Recognizing the environmental factors that can encourage overeating may help you rein in this problem. Here are some practical suggestions: Move on. When you eat out, go elsewhere for after-dinner coffee so you are less tempted to segue right into dessert. Play hard to get. Put the most tempting foods high up in the cupboard, at the very back of the fridge, or in other inconvenient spots. Replace the cookie jar and candy bowl with a fruit bowl. Downsize. Many small containers are better than a few large ones, because they provide convenient stopping points. Never eat directly out of a large package. Plan ahead. Decide how much you're going to eat before an event and do your best to stick with that plan. Set some limits before you go to the movies or watch the Sunday afternoon football games. It's so easy to mindlessly munch when you're in front of a screen of any kind. Be a copycat. Look around. Who's eating the least? Who has the healthiest food on their plate? Model your eating habits on that person's. Keep it the same. Don't put out too many different varieties of the same kind of food. You'll be tempted to sample from each one and eat a lot more than if you were faced with fewer choices. It's been well documented that portion sizes are increasing in the United States. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has put together a Web site quiz, aptly named Portion Distortion, which challenges you to guess how calorie counts in the 1980s compare with this decade's. The Web address is http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/portion. We'll give away the answer for the once-humble bagel. The 1984 version was a mere 3 inches across and contained 140 calories. In 2004, the average bagel is 6 inches across and contains 350 calories, which is the number contained in 31/2, 8-ounce servings of a soft drink. http://www.ediets.com/news/article.cfm/cmi_1630887/cid_7/code_24720/

Very interesting - and probably just good common sense. The GROWING of America..... Thanks, Denise. How's everyone doing? I'm staying on track pretty well - not logging into fitday.com, but did well yesterday and lost a couple of pounds, so that's very motivating.... Hugs, Nancy