Mindless eating can be a dieter’s downfall

Published 9:00 pm Monday, January 15, 2007

Weight problems and obesity are soaring among Americans. Some take drastic measures to reduce, such as gastric bypass surgery, while others try the latest fad diet (although 95 percent of such dieters regain lost weight within a year).

To the rescue comes Brian Wansink’s brilliant book, “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” ($25).

Using the tricks of his trade, the food psychologist explains why it can be so hard to control what we eat yet so easy to control our environment to help us eat less.

According to Wansink, it is nearly impossible to be in full control of our eating. He says we make at least 200 food decisions each day, most of them mindlessly – for example, snacking and overeating when distracted or when prompted by our environment, such as a bowl of candy at the office or people around us eating.

Food psychologists have conducted countless experiments to prove this point. One, described in the book, involved giving free popcorn to moviegoers, half of whom got a large bag and half a medium-size bag. Although some people from each group left some popcorn in their bags, those with the larger bags ate more – an average of 53 percent!