Sergeant Volkin: Your book, Mindless Eating has opened many
people’s eyes into what food they put in their mouth. Which of our
senses provides the biggest bias on what foods we choose to eat?
Dr. Wansink: Well, all of our senses affect the way we eat but our
eyes affect our eating decisions the most. In one study involving
chicken wings, a group of students were invited to an all-you-can-eat
Buffalo Wing feast. The students were free to serve themselves from an
open buffet of chicken wings and were able to go back for more during
the game. There were bowls at each table to hold the wing bones. During
the course of the game, waitresses collected the bowls and replaced them
with empty bowls – but only at half of the tables. At the other tables,
the bowls containing the finished wings were not picked up.
Dr. Wansink: After the game, me and my team weighed the discarded
bones from each table. The students who didn’t have the leftover bones
as a reminder of how much they had already eaten, ate more – an average
of seven wings per person; versus five wings per person of the other
group. Although a two-wing difference (at 100 calories each) doesn’t
sound like much that translates to 200 additional calories per day,
which equals a weight gain of 20 pounds per year.
Sergeant Volkin: One of your findings suggests that nationality
plays a role in our food psychology. For example, the French know they
are done with their food when they feel full. When asking Chicago
residents, your results show they are done when their plate is empty. Do
you think this mindset is the reason for the obesity epidemic in
America?
Dr. Wansink: There are many reasons for the obesity epidemic but that
reason is only a very small part. In my opinion, the greater
contribution to the obesity epidemic in this country is the
affordability and availability of food.
Sergeant Volkin: Let’s talk about children. Obviously marketing
has got very sophisticated over the years and it is harder than ever to
get kids to eat their fruit and vegetables. You did a study and found
that by adding fruit to the end of a lunch line, it increases fruit
sales 70%. Same with vegetables, you can increase sales 25% just by
giving vegetables catchy names. So let’s use the example of a typical
mom with a couple of children. This mom is cooking her children dinner,
what can she do in her home to get her kids more excited about fruits
and vegetables?
Dr. Wansink: It is estimated that 70% of all fruits and vegetables
consumed in the home are consumed during dinner. However, only 23% of
dinner meals served in the home have a vegetable or fruit option. So
always be sure to serve a vegetables or fruit at dinner. Another tip
you can do to increase your child’s consumption of fruit and vegetables
it to have a bowl of fruit or a vegetable tray within two feet of where
your child will walk in the house. This will give your child easy
access to healthy finger food.
Sergeant Volkin: You’ve made the difficult transition of taking
your research and applying it practically to school lunch rooms
throughout the country. Can you tell me a bit about the initiatives you
are undertaking and where my readers can go for more information?
Dr. Wansink: MindlessEating.org is my main website but smarterlunchrooms.org is an initiative I have with schools across the country. In my new book that will be released in April called Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life, I
will introduce groundbreaking solutions for designing our most common
spaces like schools, restaurants, grocery stores, home kitchens and
more.
Sergeant Volkin: You have found that we all consume more food from
big packages, whatever the product is. Is it safe to say you do not
have a Costco or BJ’s Wholesale membership card?
Dr. Wansink: I have actually been a member of a wholesale club for
years. Just because you buy in bulk doesn’t mean you need to eat in
bulk. Let’s say you buy a big bag of pretzels at one of these warehouse
stores. I suggest portioning out the pretzels in baggies. This method
has proven to effectively reduce the amount of food you consume. Now
let’s suppose you buy a bag of chips at one of these warehouse stores
but the chips are already in individual bags. My suggestion is to just
take a few bags and put them in your pantry, then take the rest and
store them in a place where you don’t normally store food (e.g. your
garage or basement). This method reduces the chance of you grabbing
more bags than you want for a quick snack.
Sergeant Volkin: In a recent interview with the Calorie Lab
you stated “Most of us don’t overeat because we’re hungry. We overeat
because of family and friends, packages and plates, names and numbers,
labels and lights, colors and candles, shapes and smells, distractions
and distances, cupboards and containers.” For those who haven’t read
your books or your dozens of articles and studies, what one tip can you
give them as a takeaway to this interview that will help them instantly
make smarter eating decisions?
Dr. Wansink: My tip is people need to be aware of mindless eating,
not mindful eating. There are many ways people make mistakes eating,
from party binging to mindless snacking. Be conscious of the way you
eat, then come up with one easy thing you can do to remedy that
mistake. Much of the time the correct action is just being conscious
that you are making the mistake.
Sergeant Volkin: Dr. Wansink thank you so much for your time today
and congratulations on the success of your books. I am looking forward
to the release of Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life
Dr. Wansink: Thank you for your time and your service Sergeant Volkin
1 Comments:
The fact that attractive packaging,
colours, and shapes make food more attractive should not be seen as
automatically negative. It is normal that manufacturers of processed
food or just frozen food try to make their products more appealing.
It is up to each person to pick up the right products. Eating fresh
produce may be ideal, but on many occasions, it is simply too
expensive or cumbersome to prepare. A very interesting interview
overall. http://johnvespasian.blogspot....