Mindless eating... it's how we eat!

One of the books I relied on for good -- and fascinating -- information for How We Did It was Dr. Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More than We Think.

Dr. Wansink is called a "food psychologist." From his lab at Cornell University, he conducts experiments into the factors that lead us to eat what we eat. And you'd think that we eat what we eat because it tastes good, right? Wrong!

In some of his crazy experiments, Dr. Wansink has uncovered the many misguided reasons we eat. Among them are these:

• The size and shape of a bowl can almost double the amount of food you eat.
• Restaurants can get you to eat more by describing their menu items with adjectives.
• You will eat more candy if you throw away the wrappers as you go along than if you let the wrappers pile up.
• If you have bread served with dipping oil rather than with butter, you'll consume less bread but more calories.
  
• Grocery store signs that read 3-for-$3 rather than $1/each can more than double our purchases.

These are just a few of the fascinating facts Dr. Wansink has confirmed with his research. How can you apply this information to your food consumption? "By encouraging healthy, mindful eating, we can decrease obesity," Wansink says. "A keen awareness of all these hidden persuaders is an important step in controlling the amount and quality of food you eat."

For me, "mindful eating" means this:
I will not eat straight from a package. If I want some crackers, I'll put some on a plate.
I will not eat something just because it's there. Most chocolate made in the U.S. tastes like wax. I've stopped eating my son's leftover Halloween candy. If I want chocolate, I'll eat just a little bit of really good chocolate.
I absolutely do not shop when I'm hungry. The temptations are just too overwhelming. I'll have a small, healthy snack before I go, even if I'm in a hurry.
If I eat while watching TV, I choose the snack beforehand and set it out on the coffee table. No trips to the kitchen during a show!

How about you? What does "mindful eating" mean for you?

Obesity and family food choices

I've been to two high school productions recently. One was a musical, the other a choral event. Let me tell you what I noticed. In the musical, of the performers who didn't have lead roles, I'd say about 1 in 4 was overweight. In the choral production, the ratio was even higher -- nine of the 13 singers were overweight and probably five of them would be considered obese. I was shocked.

But maybe that's just the way it is today. Bill Baroni, a well-known New Jersey politician who told me about his 132-pound weight loss, said that when he grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, he was the target of cruel comments and hurtful exclusion by other children because he was “the fat kid” in his class. But today, he speculated, kids might not have it so bad.

“Today, you’re not the only fat kid in the class,” he said. “You’re just one of many fat kids.”

In fact, that’s just what health researchers have found. In a 2002 survey, the National Center for Health Statistics calculated that about 17 percent of children over the age of six are overweight or obese—that’s around 13.5 million children. That number has more than doubled in the last few decades. And who knows what’s happened in the years since the survey.

Having a child myself, I don’t want to believe that the blame lies solely with parents. And, in fact, I don’t think it does. Read up on the food industry—Don’t Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock or Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser—to come face to face with the powerful corporate forces that are battling us for our children’s health.

But we are not blameless. One Cornell University researcher has quantified just how much responsibility we as parents bear. In his book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Brian Wansink examines the influence of the person in the family he calls “the nutritional gatekeeper.” That's the parent who does the menu planning, grocery shopping and cooking. Through extensive studies, Wansink found that this person is responsible for about 72 percent of a family’s food choices.

I was heartened by that number, because it means that in our own house we can control all but 28 percent of the food our child eats. But if I’m honest, I have to admit that the decisions we make aren’t always good. Grilled sausage-and-cheese sandwiches. Donuts. Cheese puffs. Pepperoni pizza. Of our own volition, we abdicate some of our responsibility on a daily basis.

I recently laid out on the kitchen table the typical foods my son eats during an average day. I checked labels, looked up nutritional information online and added up his intake of just one ingredient: sugar. I'll post the results soon.... as soon as I pick myself up off the floor!

Laura Freberg: Celebrating an anniversary

Weddings, graduations, the Fourth of July... this is the time of year we enjoy celebrations of all sorts.

Laura Freberg has her own reason to celebrate. This summer marks her first anniversary on the National Weight Control Registry.

The registry tracks people who have lost weight and kept it off over time. (http://www.nwcr.ws/.) To qualify, you must be at least 18 years old, have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for one year or more. People have reported losing up to 300 pounds and keeping it off for up to 66 years.

To date, more than 6,000 people have logged their weight loss stories. Laura is one of them. A psychology professor at California Polytechnic State University, she and her daughter Karen signed up at their local Jenny Craig office in San Luis Obispo. While her daughter wanted to lose the weight she had needed as an All-American shot-putter, Laura wanted to gain control over her 5’9”, 210-pound, size 16 frame.

Once Laura and Karen received their first shipment of meals, they discovered that portion control would be a challenge for them, even with healthy food on their table.

“California is all about fresh fruit; bananas, grapes, you name it. We ate good food, just way too much of it. We’d sit down to eat a bowl of cherries that was about four times what we should be having,” Laura says.

Controlling portions and calories, the women’s weight loss was almost immediate. Karen lost 11 pounds the first week, Laura lost six. From then on, one to two pounds a week was standard.

For Laura, the decision to use a delivered meal program made weight loss almost automatic. She recalls reading Brian Wansink’s book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, and being struck by his finding that people make more than 200 decisions a day about food. To her, that meant 200-plus opportunities to make the wrong choice.

“What I like most about the Jenny Craig system is that no decisions have to be made,” Laura says. “I prefer to use my time, energy, and neural activity on my work and hobbies, not thinking about food.”

Today, Laura maintains a goal weight of about 130 pounds (an 80-pound loss) and wears size 4 “Barbie-doll suits.” Congratulations, Laura! (That's Laura and her husband Roger in a 2007 photo.) To read more about Laura, check out her website at http://www.laurafreberg.com/

In another post, I'll tell you about the rest of Laura's family. Jenny Craig quickly became a way of life for the Freberg family. Together, they've lost about 275 pounds. Now, that's reason to celebrate!