Eater's Digest: Unconscious overeating

By Scott Norgaard     2/25/10 6:00pm

For most of us, it's a simple premise: You eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Right? Wrong. It turns out our stomachs are terrible indicators of satiety. Current scientific studies show that our sense of "fullness" is more affected by environmental cues than by our bodies' need for energy. It's not that your stomach lies - it's just that it's pretty susceptible to peer pressure.

Before the advent of storable, portable and highly convenient foods, our body's mechanisms prompted and allowed us to store excess energy in times when food was plentiful - say, in the fall, around harvest times. This stored energy allowed our ancestors to survive through times when food was scarce, namely during the cold winter.

The climate has changed considerably since, and food is now an easily available commodity. Our bodies have not changed, however, and they still give us the same signals to eat. This makes it easy to eat all the time; if you need proof, just meander beyond the hedges - according to a 2009 survey by Men's Fitness, Houston is the sixth-fattest city in America.

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To study eating habits - more specifically, the environmental factors that impact our conception of fullness - Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Consumer Science at Cornell University, designed an experiment, recorded in his book Mindless Eating, where participants ate a bowl of tomato soup. Rather, half of the participants ate a bowl of soup. The other half ate out of a bowl-shaped contraption connected to a large reservoir of soup - a bottomless soup bowl.

Researchers surveyed the participants afterwards, asking them how full they were and how many calories they thought they had consumed. Participants eating from the bottomless bowls rated themselves just as full as the other group, though they ate 73 percent more soup, or 113 more calories, than those who ate from regular soup bowls. It turns out that we rely more strongly on visual cues, such as emptying a soup bowl, than on our stomachs.

In his interesting line of consumption research, Wansink has discovered a variety of other factors that influence how much we eat, including the size and shape of our tableware. He found that people who used short, wide glasses and large plates were more prone to overeating than those drinking from taller glasses and eating from smaller plates.

He also found that packaging size influences how much we consume. When we eat out of huge, Costco-sized packages, we often feel that we have to eat more of one item to feel the same amount of fullness. Why is this?

In his book, Wansink theorizes that we base our portion sizes on what we are accustomed to consuming. For instance, we might be used to apportioning a certain amount of box cereal for our breakfast. When we try to pour the same amount from a large family-size box of cereal instead, we tend to over-pour, since we calculate our portions relative to the size of the package. This can be difficult for those trying to watch their weight, especially with the proliferation of jumbo- and super-sized versions of products that litter grocery store aisles.

According to Walter Willett's book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, American farmers are now producing 3,800 calories for every American, a number roughly twice what we should consume. So where do all these calories go? Surely some portion of these calories are going to waste, but a large portion is going to our bellies. How do we combat this increase in calories? Despite the prevalence of larger packaging and the super-sizing of restaurant meals, we can use these psychological concepts to our advantage and use them to consume less. Here are some tips to avoid mindless overeating:

Try not to rush while eating just because people around you are eating quickly.

Out of sight, out of mind: Keep sweets and junk foods out of easy reach. The more accessible they are, the more likely you are to fill up on sugar.

If you buy in bulk, redistribute the amount into small-sized bags or plastic containers.

Eat slowly and consciously, actually appreciating your food. You can put away a lot of food without thinking when munching in front of the TV. Take a break, portion yourself a snack and enjoy the pleasure of eating.

In the servery, use smaller plates to serve yourself. You can still take normal amounts of food, but spreading it on multiple plates or even multiple trips can make eating a more conscious act.

It is important to be aware of the things that cause us to overconsume and can lead to weight gain. Knowing about these psychological tricks is key to avoiding unwanted overeating.

Scott Norgaard is a Sid Richardson College freshman.

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