http://voices.washingtonpost.com/che...highly_ob.html
I think this guy uses the words "easily" and "effortlessly" a bit cavalierly. Regardless, he makes some interesting points about behavior that can cause us to eat more than we need.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/che...highly_ob.html
I think this guy uses the words "easily" and "effortlessly" a bit cavalierly. Regardless, he makes some interesting points about behavior that can cause us to eat more than we need.
He also swapped "site" for "sight":
Man, I'm in the wrong line of work. I really should be a copy-editor.Quote:
They eat while looking at food. 41.7 percent of those with high BMIs took seats that overlooked the buffet, instead of sitting in a booth or facing in a different direction. The site of food tends to make our minds think we have more work to do, eating-wise. Keep your food stored in the fridge or the pantry, not out on the countertops.
Other than that, I agree that he does raise some good points.
It seemed pretty glib to me.
Sure, these are behaviors that correlate strongly with people eating more, but are they primary behaviors that can easily be changed, one by one or all at a time? Or is there something underlying them - a psychology (or reality) of scarcity, excessive susceptibility to marketing messages, true physical hunger due to carb bingeing (associated with lower-priced foods) or insulin dysfunction, something else? And of course, basing all his observations on buffet restaurants isn't representative of either the general population or the daily eating habits of the people he observed.
I've observed the same behaviors he's talking about, and it's easy to be smug and judgmental, but I don't think it's helpful.
One thing I have seen lately is that restaurants that used to have their servers bring diners piles of empty plates, now require diners to get their own clean plates one at a time; and much smaller dessert plates are stacked on the dessert bar. I'm sure both of these are intended as cost-saving measures, but the health benefits of eating less are still there.
Yes, several people pointed out the typo in the blog comments. I didn't notice it, which means I'm losing my touch, I guess.
"They use larger plates. When offered two plate sizes, 98.6 percent of those with the highest BMIs took the larger of the two plates to the buffet. A bigger plate tricks your eye into thinking you're not eating as much, and stuffing more food onto your plate -- and into your mouth. Use a smaller plate, get a smaller belly"
I just finished reading The 9-inch Diet. It's not really a diet book. It's more about how we've slowly been led into eating more at each meal through a series of subtle changes, one of which is that the average size of a dinner plate has expanded from the former norm of 9-inches to a current norm of 12. The author advocates the simple little change of purchasing and using 9 inch dinner plates. You'll quickly adjust to the smaller plate size, and naturally eat less food.
This is related to something I saw on TV a while back -- a show on one of the Discovery channels called "I can make you thin." The first advice the guy offered was 1. eat when you're hungry and 2. stop eating as soon as you think you're getting full. So much of it boils down to paying attention to eating while you eat so that you stop when your body tells you that you've had enough, instead of eating more food than you need just because it's there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas
This is the smartest thing said in the entire article.Quote:
Indeed, getting fat is often a result of some simple -- and easily correctable -- bad habits, especially when it comes to dining out.
The rest of it strikes me as highly anecdotal and I agree that studying people at buffet restaurants is a poor representation of society.
Yes, restaurants are in the business of selling food. The more they sell, the better they do. No secret there. Food companies hire ad agencies and promoters to spin their food in one way shape or form in order to sell more. It's what they do. They cannot be held responsible for the obesity problem in this country. They do not put the food in our mouths.
I swear that if I hear or read one more article about how it's everyone else's fault that Americans are fat EXCEPT Americans, I'm gonna scream. What has happened to the idea of personal responsibility? Since when is it the restaurant, government, food industry, etc...job to ensure that we are eating correctly as individuals?
Lately I've been bit stressed out... I just have a hunkering for fried chicken even KFC sounds yummy. And fish and chips and more chips ... even a meatloaf din din sounds pretty good. I don't hang out at a fast food joint, I hate buffet cause its volume and not taste...
sigh...
okay my weight gain has been going on for the last 30 years (gulp). averaging about a pound every year. (gulp)
I'm conditioned to finish off my plate no matter what and its a hard habit to break more so because I'm really cheap. sigh...
stop eating when you are getting full? WHAT ABOUT ALL THE STARVING PEOPLE IN AFRICA I would hear...Well they are not getting my leftovers that's for sure. Can't pack it up and send it there...
More I think about diet more I want to eat.... :mad::mad::mad:
this isn't healthy. I think I need to grab a bag of M&Ms and a supersized chai latte. Chai latte is good for you isn't it?? snort!! At least I'll feel better in the short run.
Seriously, I hate my weight. I hate to look myself in the mirror. I hate to go shopping for cloth these days :mad: Why can'I be like one of my cat. Her name is Twiggy. long skinny legs and skinny torso just like the namesake. She tries to bury her food on two out of every three feeding. I really don't think I'm eating all that much food!! HONESTLY...
more things to stress over...
I only eat from 8 inch plates. I buy them special, one at a time, from potters, and I have quite an eclectic collection. I take great care in choosing them, so each time I eat it is a pleasure. That, and eating breakfast, are two of the most important reason I'm down 45 pounds.
Karen
Larger plates are almost impossible to avoid. I went to the store and bought a set of dishes a few months ago. (a set of 4 plates, bowls, etc.) when I put them away in my cabinets, the dinner plates were about 1/2 inch too large to fit completely so my door is slightly ajar.Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas
Well, I decided to get some more dinner plates and salad plates and got some plates in sets of 4 (that did not match my set); (you can only buy that set as a set). To my surprise, they are just a hint bigger than the first set and I had to move my plates into the lower cabinet cause they would not fit!
Yikes, what an issue to have!
I have to admit that I often eat off of the salad plates instead of the dinner plates since I don't eat that much.
That was one of the things that got the author of the book thinking about plate size. He bought an older home, one in which 9-inch plates fit just fine, but his "modern" plates wouldn't allow the cupboard doors to close! Newer homes come with deeper cabinets, to accomodate all the oversized plates we use these days!Quote:
Originally Posted by spokewench
I was good today... I saved half my sandwitch :D:D instead of devouring it and feeling like a stuffed turkey afterwards.
The plate size got me thinking too, so I measured te plate that was used to serve my sandwitch (freebie at the coffee house where I hang out often). and sure enough that plate was around 12 inches. yeah I can be a uber nerd. Then again I can't help it.
It's not just us or the serving size or the plates. It's happening to our kitchen appliances as well. Fridge is lot lot bigger, and my poor oven looks more like an easy bake oven compared to today's built in oven. One in my house measures around 23"?? and the newer models are 26" and more up to date ones are 28" or even 32" wide. I can't replace my broken oven in my kitchen cause the new ones will not fit!!
I had to get nerdy and measure my plates, too. The ones I use most are 8". I got them at a restaurant supply store in NY. They're those classic diner plates with the maroon border. Not really anything pretty about them, but they're indestructible, and I guess they keep me from loading up!
I can't remember now because I got them a long time ago, but I bet I got them because they fit in my tiny NYC cabinet.
hmmmm my dinner plates are about 10 inches, but the area that you actually put food on is 7.... I rarely use them though. I tend to prefer bowls.
Smilingcat is so right about appliances - we didn't want a big fridge. It's just the two of us and I like to shop daily, so a huge side by side would not only waste space in my small house (the fridge isn't even in the kitchen - its in the pantry), it would go largely unused. Small fridges in this country were all seriously ugly with no amenities - like not even movable shelves at the time (this was about 15 years ago), but we'd been overseas - and were soooooo jealous. In Japan, Italy and England where living spaces are mostly much smaller than we have here small appliances were seriously stylish. We finally did find a place here selling a Swedish brand. We ended up with a really nice, really energy efficient fridge eventually, but it took a lot of effort.
Interesting about the plate size for supper or in lieu, using bowls instead.
Just realized as a child and teenager, I grew up in a home where our staple..rice was either served to each of us, in a bowl or on a dinner plate, depending on the entrees served.
When rice was served in bowls, of course, our entree(s) was served traditional Asian style, where you use chopsticks to pick food from the serving platter from the imaginary triangle area of that common entree dish in front of each person. That is etiquette and we were taught to observe this (most of the time :p) at home. It is bad manners to reach over and pick up food from someone else's "pie" area.....still is bad manners.
Hence, now I realize, it might have actually "controlled" our portions of meat, veggies instead of handing around platters of food around the table and using a big spoon to scoop out a portion of meat, veggies for oneself. We never did that at home while growing up. It's a more Western serving style at the dinner table. Besides seating 8 people with all the dishes on table was really tight, it would have been totally impractical to pass around central common dishes of entrees & veggies.
If our rice was served on a dinner plate, each child and adult still picked up their portion of the food from common entree central serving dish (with their chopsticks) and placed it on dinner plate OR I remember as older sibling, I would help my mother allocate each person's portion of meat, veggies, etc. I learned ie. what amount to serve much younger siblings. Then everyone else would be allowed to come to table to eat.
So maybe this helped...the portion control issue in our family for quite a long time.
This technique also gives me a benchmark that I know for certain how much I've cut back on white rice consumption now compared to when I was a teenager. I used to eat 2 full bowls of white rice per dinner. Occasionally 3 bowls for entree was particularily yummy with a sauce. In my teens, I weighed in early 90's lbs., I was abit slim even abit underweight during some years.
Now it is 1 heaping bowl equivalent of white rice, perhaps once a week.
If you can't get a small plate (if you're in a restaurant, or for whatever reason), it's still useful to be aware of the size of the plate and the way it masks the large amount of food you've been served, so you can eat the right portion size anyway.
Last year I started to really focus on eating only until I felt full, even if there was still food left on the plate. It worked to help me lose some weight, and I'm also saving money -- instead of sandwich for lunch and snack in late afternoon, I eat 1/2 sandwich at lunch and other half in late p.m., so I'm not buying snacks anymore. I'm eating less for dinner too.
When I had to buy a new refrigerator last year, I was amazed at all of the gigantor models they had in the stores. When I was growing up there were 8 people living in our house (2 parents, 5 kids, 1 grandma) and we got by with a fridge that would be considered on the small side today.
The other thing I do in restaurants is divide my food in half before I eat it, and then only eat half. Some people I know ask for a to-go box right away and divide it up and put it in the box so they're not tempted. I'm okay with it being on the plate until I'm done.
Karen
Interesting about fridge size... we bought a smaller fridge (18.2 cf) for the energy savings when our old one died, and I HATE it. A large bunch of greens or celery won't fit in the crisper, so they just have to get covered with a couple of plastic bags and jammed into the main compartment, where it's likely to get crushed. Holidays or dinner guests? Forget about it. Not enough room for the ingredients for a meal with more than three courses, on top of the flours, oils and condiments that ordinarily live in the fridge, plus a bottle or two of wine.
Yeah - ours gets a bit jammed if we do a big holiday meal, but that's so seldom that I don't mind. We do have two crispers that fit things just fine - well celery might have to go in diagonally, but it fits. The shelves can all be moved around. Its a very well designed fridge. The freezer compartment is small - its on the bottom and so is the compressor, but I don't freeze much so its no big deal to me.
It really hasn't changed much at all since we got ours - http://www.conservappliances.com/moreinfo.asp?id=60
I use the salad/dessert sized plates for my breakfast and lunch. I use it for dinner when we are having a sandwich/salad type of meal.
It used to be hard for me not to eat everything on my plate, but about 2 months ago I started not eating anything after dinner; somehow, that has allowed me to feel full more quickly and be able to stop eating when I am out for dinner. Of course, I am not perfect about this, but it just seems easier. My weight, which while normal, has been fluctuating within a five pound range, despite exercise. Now, it is very stable, within a pound of where it should be. It just took the one simple change of regulating my food intake in the evening to do this.
Oh man, don't get me started on fridge sizes! We just had to replace the 30 year old one that came with our house and we had a hell of a time finding one that would fit. In fact, we couldn't! We ended up having to remove the overhead cabinet AND we paid a premium for a counter-depth fridge.
Seriously, there is something really wrong with the fact that the smaller counter-depth fridges are all WAY more expensive than the big ones! Why should I be paying more for less?
And while we are talking over-sized...try finding a smaller house on a little bit of land. That's like asking for diamonds from the tooth fairy....totally impossible!!
I am a nerd, I had to measure my Fiestaware. (Made in the USA, which is the main reason why I bought it. That and it's pretty darn tough and cute.)
The dinner plate is 10 1/2 inches across. The part where food can actually sit is smaller than that, of course. Looking at how they fit in my cupboard, I don't think 12 inch plates would fit in the cupboard at all.
Wanna freak yourself out? Watch the Sesame Street clips from the first couple seasons (60's). Man, everyone was so skinny back then!
Thanks - now I don't have to measure my Fiestaware!Quote:
Originally Posted by KnottedYet
(That reminds me, I've meaning to measure my arms for positive ape/negative ape...)
You can get those little racks that stand your plates up, and put them parallel to the cabinet door. Of course, sometimes the shelves are too close together! The shelves in my cabinets are adjustable, but I've never moved them since I moved in this place.
Karen
Maybe I'm just not seeing things completely: I would have thought at least having the freezer part abit big is helpful to those who garden veggies/fruits and have to freeze alot.
Our freezer part of fridge is abit underutilized..about only 1/4 full. What we have right now is cut pieces of fresh frozen salmon (I bought whole, cleaned fresh salmon and cut it up into meal size portions for freezing), fresh blueberries and raspberries that we bought & froze, dearie's bagels, and less than 8 small meal serving sizes of fresh chicken breast. I am the one that tends to buy any meat, divide it up and freeze. At other times of year, we may have 2-3 meals worth of frozen homemade soup or a few small bags of frozen chopped up pumpkin or butternut squash.
That's all that we will probably do in terms of using our underutilized freezer.
Fridge came automatically with our unit.
I never knew about new homes having cabinets to fit bigger dinner plates. Nor smaller fridges as more expensive. Things one learns on TE. :)
We watched Woodstock last weekend and both of us commented about the same thing. I only saw a few people in the thronging masses that would be considered overweight. This was my generation. I honestly don't remember anyone in my high school being overweight.Quote:
Originally Posted by KnottedYet
I work at a community college now. I'd say about one student in three is overweight. Many are obese. Sad how things have changed...
I love my fiesta ware too. We often eat on the salad plates. I thought that was a good article. My father gave me advice when I was 15 years old. He said ALWAYS eat breakfast, even if it's just a little toast. I'm the one that listened, and today, I am thinner than all of his natural children and stepchildren.Quote:
Originally Posted by KnottedYet
(I eat really fast though!)
For years now I've worked out at a gym that is in a nice hotel. Many hotel guests use the pool there. I see lots of overweight kids. It's sad.Quote:
Originally Posted by five one
Making me feel bad... I ate lunch at an Indian buffet today. But I only went through the line once. :rolleyes: And it was lunch, so dinner will be a lite meal. But now I need a nap.
I checked my kitchen. Our fridge is tiny, and so are our plates( and we are both pretty skinny)! In fact the plates we got are square, with big flat lips on them, so the middle food portion, is about four inches!
Mostly eat out of bowls, salad size. If you know me from posts, you know I use to have a eating disorder, so I dont have to diet but I do have some good habits for food.Also I am allergic to mostly everything, so theres no binge foods, like oreos or cereal or bread( I make my own from quinoa).
BUT, if you like to snack or want to learn some good food habits, here is mine.
I eat about five meals a day. Three of those meals are made of fresh fruit, and veggies raw, sometimes with a couple tablespoons of dip - mustard, balsamic and herbs. I eat green apples all day, as snacks And celery, lots of that.
Its also good, before dinner to have a big green salad, or some nibble veggies with dip, or some soup( I like split pea that I make myself, its very filling).
Then have a BIG bowl of steamed veggies. Im a vegetarian, so that's my main meal then I have baked potatoes or something like casserole.
Smiling cat, you can eat ALL you want of veggies( but make some nice lo cal salad dressing or you'll get really bored quick) and then have dinner, and be full and eat less. I have to eat all this raw stuff anyhow, because of allergies and let me tell you, your really full!!:)
Im all for eating lots!