Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink

I was at Barnes and Noble and was flipping through this book this afternoon. I decided to switch to a smaller plate tonight after seeing a dark circle with a small cluster of white circles around it versus the same sized black dot with larger white circles around it. Below, the author asked, "Which black dot looks larger?" Does anyone have this book, recommend it, have a favorite snip-it from it?

Thu. Jan 3, 7:53pm

LOVE this book! I thought the studies they did were so interesting and I've put a few things into practice since.

There were so many fun studies that it's hard to summarize them here, but I did learn a lot and I think twice now when I eat a lot of foods. I would definitely recommend it :)

I think my favorite study was the movie popcorn study, where they invited people to a free movie with popcorn - after lunch so they knew the participants wouldn't be hungry. Stale popcorn was brought in - and movie goers were given a regular sized container or a gigantic container. Those eating out of the gigantic container tended to eat several handfuls more of the STALE popcorn than those with the smaller containers. The point being - sometimes we'll eat virtually anything (ha) and that larger containers = more eating. And we think, well 'duh' I know that - but his book points out that even when we know such things we still tend to 'fall' for it, which is what makes it so dangerous! It was a fun way to remind ourselves how easily we can eat more than we think - and how many times have we heard here - I'm not losing weight!

Thursday, January 03, 2008, 11:13 PM

I didn\t find I got through the whole book but it does help me think about eating quality versus food that's in front of me.

Friday, January 04, 2008, 9:56 AM

OP here...I remember the stale popcorn test. I think that was on Nightline or something. Amazing.

I am definitely trying to focus on quality this year. I always think of the comedian who said, "Why would I eat food prepared by someone who is making minimum wage, has pimples, and whose mother has to tell them to clean up their room?" or something like that...

Friday, January 04, 2008, 2:46 PM

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