Over eating? Not me....
Mom always told us to eat up all food on a plate, since eating variety of food makes us healthy. We were good kids; we ate all food served, and more. Thirty years later, we are still good kids, and still eating all food served and more, but somehow extra pounds hanging around our bodies and we do not feel healthyc
One recent study* indicates that it is not a momfs fault, but due to our evolution past. The study showed us that if we are served different types of food, we eat far more than when we are served a single type of food. For example, people eat far more calories, if there are chocolate, pound cake, cheese cake, and cookies than if there is only a pound cake. This makes sense, since our ancestors did not need to worry about over eating, but needed to worry about lack of necessary nutrients. In fact, even in the US it is only less than 100 years that people do not need to worry about famine (and still there are many counties which have food shortage problems now). Here are some suggestions to avoid overeating based on this observation:
Prepare all food in similar texture, taste, color, and shape.
The study indicates that people eat less food if the food has similar texture, taste, color, and
shape, even ingredients are totally different. On the other hand, they eat more if these qualities
are different even the ingredient is same.
Serve small potions for several different types of food with one of them as a main.
Many people enjoy meals, and do not want to lose varieties on a table. Serve a half of usual servings
as side dishes. Add mashed potatoes, rice, pasta, fish, or meat as a main (but again not too much).
Eat one type of food at a meal, but serve different food for every meal.
You can eat variety of food, but at each meal, you eat only one type of food. For example, serve
a glass of non-fat milk with a piece of toast for breakfast, a fruit for mid morning snack, baked
fish with small salad with non-fat dressing for lunch, non-fat yogurt for mid afternoon snack, brown
race with curry for dinner.
Eat a bowl of soup.
It is known that people feel more satisfaction if they eat food in a soup form. In one study,
scientists served a casserole with a glass of water to one group, and a bowl of soup of the same
ingredient with same amount of calories and water to the other group. The later felt more satisfactions
from their meal.
Eat salad with everything in it.
Vegetables are, in general, very nutritional and very low in calories. Mixing food which is high in
protein, and/or carbohydrate into a salad makes food similar in taste, texture, and color. You can
mix, for example, meat with very spicy flavor so that you do not need to add any dressing at all.
Get rid of all unwanted food from your refrigerator and cupboards.
It is human nature to eat cookies in a cupboard and ice cream in a freezer. We cannot help it!
Throw them out. If you do not have one, you cannot eat it. I am not saying that you should not eat
them at all, but saying that you do not want them at home. If you want to eat a cone of ice cream,
go to an ice cream parlor and eat at there. It is just too easy to eat ice cream from a freezer.
If you walk to the shop, you may actually spend more calories that the cones of ice cream.
Pile up fruit.
They are nutritious, sweet, tasty, and low in calories. Except a few (e.g. banana, avocado, coconut
--- if you count these as fruits), you can eat them a lot.
Eat good meat and fish.
You definitely need good protein food, such as lean beef, chicken, and fish. Just do not serve with
too much side dish, especially high carbohydrate food at the same time. Instead serve with fresh
vegetables. Meat and potato is out of fashion; meat and fresh vegetable is in.
Use diet oriented nutritional drink or food bar.
Although I do not recommend this as a primary source of your daily meal, many people are far too busy
to prepare meals themselves. Some of nutritional drinks are low in calories, but high in nutrition.
Since texture and taste are similar (usually chocolate flavor), you feel satisfied with one serving.
If you are a type of person who is always on the go, this could be a choice.
Work out! You cannot replace work out by eating less. You want to trim extra calories, but you cannot replace your work out by it. Work out makes your cardiovascular system healthy, bone and muscular structure strong, and keeps your brain healthy. Besides, work out makes you less hungry, if you do correctly.
* Dietary Variety, Energy Regulation, and Obesity," Hollie A. Raynor, Ph.D.,
and Leonard H. Epstein, Ph.D., University of Buffalo; Psychological Bulletin Vol 127, No. 3
Back to The Article Page