Author, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and Nutritional Science, Cornell University
Director, Cornell Food and Brand Lab
Food psychologist Brian Wansink studies the subtle factors that influence why and how much we eat, including the size and shape of our dishes, our proximity to food, the atmosphere of the room, and more. When these external factors affect how we eat without us even knowing it, Dr. Wansink calls this "mindless eating." We talked with him about how to prevent or reduce mindless overeating.
Q: What are the biggest "mindless eating" pitfalls that cause people to overeat?
A: There are five situations where people mindlessly overeat. I call them dietary danger zones: meal stuffing, snack grazing, party binging, restaurant indulging, and desktop/dashboard dining. It has to do with the availability of food, and the absence of anything that tells us when to stop.
Q: Your research has shown that even the researchers themselves can overeat mindlessly. Are we simply wired to make certain decisions about food?
A: I had an ice cream social with some of the world's greatest nutritional science professors and graduate students. We randomly gave them either regular size or large size bowls, and regular size or large size ice cream scoops. Even though these experts study nutritional science every day, the people who were given large ice cream bowls and large ice cream scoops served themselves 53 percent more ice cream than those who got normal size bowls and scoops.
Q: Given that people seem susceptible to mindlessly overeating in so many different ways, what strategies are most important to keep from gaining weight?
A: There are two things we can do to prevent mindless eating. First, we can simply reverse all those cues around us that cause us to overeat (see sidebar). It's easier to change your environment than it is to change your mind.
The second thing is make it a habit. So, if you start serving all your family meals right from the stove, instead of where you eat, you'll find that on average, your family's going to eat about 20 percent less for dinner every night. If you're used to having seconds or thirds or even fourths, and now you have to get up to get seconds, you're going to find that thirds and fourths aren't so likely to happen.
But I've found the most successful way is to focus on making one change. I've had dozens of people come up to me and say they've made one change and they lost weight. It almost doesn't matter what change the person makes—what does matter is that they do it every day. For example, one person told me they stopped drinking sugary beverages, and lost 35 pounds in six months. Someone else said they lost weight after they stopped eating food in front of the television set. Someone told me they never eat lunch or dinner unless they have both a vegetable and a salad on the table. The point is, most of these are reasonably small changes, but they did it every day.
Q: How can decisions we make at the grocery store keep us from mindlessly overeating?
A: You've heard before, 'never shop on an empty stomach.' That advice was born out of the notion that you're more likely to buy the impulse, snack foods that you'll eat on the way home. But I think the real problem with shopping when you're hungry is that it's going to influence you for a long time because you're more likely to buy processed food and less likely to buy fresh, whole foods.
Q: Do you have any other tips to help with losing or maintaining weight?
A: It's better to cut 200 calories a day, every day for a year, than to cut 1,000 calories a day, because you're psychologically and physiologically depriving yourself. And that's not going to last. If you cut 200 calories a day, you could lose 20 pounds in a year and not even feel it.
