This Saturday on Healthy by Nature my guest is the famous cardiologist, Stephen Sinatra, MD, author of The Sinatra Solution: Metabolic Cardiology as well as Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before It’s Too Late and many others. If you know of someone with a cardiovascular problem, please have them tune in because the topic will be listener questions. The open lines number is 1(800)281-8255.

MORE WEIGHT LOSS STEPS

If diets work, it’s usually only temporarily. Although there are a number of metabolic reasons, probably the main cause of failure is that people just don’t want to feel deprived for very long. Last week I offered 6 ways people can change the “when, where and how” of eating and create better habits. Far from reducing the enjoyment of meals, I hope to actually increase that satisfaction. This week I’ve listed additional minor changes in habits that will improve health and increase weight management success without deprivation. They are based on a thoroughly enjoyable book that I highly recommend: Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink, Ph D. It discusses Cornell University research into the 200 tiny little food decisions we make each day without even realizing it. It reviews many amusing tests with surprising outcomes.

For example, researchers rigged up soup bowls with pumps to supply soup into the bottom of bowls so that they were never empty. Subjects ate 73% more before the scientists stopped them. Some ate up to a quart of soup but no matter how much they ate, participants thought they’d only eaten half a bowl because that’s what it looked like. This illustrates why it is important to start out with a small serving but it also points out a problem with our childhood training to join the “clean plate club.” (Even as a kid I didn’t think it made sense that somehow stuffing myself would help those poor starving children in the 3rd world.)

The Cornell research pointed out how we take clues from plate size. In one experiment even nutrition professors were fooled. Those given bigger bowls dished up 127 more calories of ice cream than those given smaller bowls. Larger scoop size made matters worse. On the typical 12” dinner plate of today, a normal serving looks sad and lost. Grandma’s dinner plate was only 9” and therefore the exact same serving would have looked more abundant.

We even take cues from the size of the package in the cupboard. When we buy those giant bags at the wholesale clubs, there is a subtle pressure to eat more each time we get into the bag. If you really want to purchase the jumbo size, it might help to at least immediately break the contents down (using zip-close snack bags) into the portion sizes listed on the nutrition facts panel. That is not to say that the portion size on the package always makes sense. At the studio I grabbed a small box of Lemon Head candy to use in an interview I was recording. I assumed it was a single serving. However, in the fine print it said that the box contained 5 servings. That means that anyone who mindlessly ate a whole box would have gotten 55 grams or almost 14 teaspoons of sugar!

Apparently “seeing is eating”. Having a candy bowl nearby is obviously enough of a problem, but the university tests showed that if the bowl is clear, the lure of the contents is greater and so people eat more. Out of sight is out of mind. Here’s a trick I use when some lovely person gives me a box of chocolates. I seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. When the mood strikes, I just thaw out the pieces we are going to eat.

Restaurant portions have gotten ridiculously large. To avoid the tyranny of the giant plate, I either split an entrée with someone or ask for a to-go box to be brought with the order. By setting aside half of the meal for later, I don’t feel pressured to eat it all. And, I’m reassured to know that if I’m truly still hungry, it’s still there if I want it.

How we eat is even affected by what we wear. The studies showed that those who live in stretchy sweat suits (or prison jump suits) are unaware that the pounds are piling on.

My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book : Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

Copyright 2011 Martie Whittekin, CCN

This information is educational only and is not intended to replace the advice of a healthcare professional.