[sidebar] His grad students greet the guests, show them into the kitchen, and describe the food in their lunch buffet: Royal Italian Bolognese, haricots verts, crusty bread with butter, and a beverage. Everyone eagerly starts serving themselves, not suspecting that they’re being bamboozled by a scientific prank worthy of Candid Camera. Behind a one-way mirror, Wansink is watching them from his office as hidden cameras record all. Scales, hidden under dish towels on the counter, weigh how much food each person takes. “They’re buying it,” he says with a huge grin. What they’re buying is what they’ve been told—it’s an elegant thank-you meal. But like anything that happens in Wansink’s lab, nothing is what it seems. That Royal Italian Bolognese? It’s really Beefaroni. The haricots verts? Canned green beans. This experiment is part of a larger test to see if people eat bigger portions when the food has evocative names. It’s just one of hundreds he’s conducted over the past 20 years in his lab, cafeterias, restaurants, and fast-food joints, trying to answer the most critical question for dieters: Why do we eat as much as we do? Wansink chronicles decades of his work in his new book, Mindless Eating. And here, he shares 10 top eating-smart tricks that really work. More from Prevention: The Sneaky Way To Eat Less [pagebreak]
Create Stop Signs
Wansink invited more than 100 women to view a video and rate it—but the real goal was to find out how many potato chips they’d eat while watching the TV. Everyone received a full canister of chips, but only one group got ordinary Pringles. The other groups got doctored packages: Either every 9th or every 13th chip was dyed red. Those with the regular Pringles ate 23 on average, while those with a dyed chip ate 10 or 15 respectively. What’s going on? Mindless munching. “The women got caught up in the video—not paying attention to how much they were eating—until something broke their rhythm,” says Wansink. In this case, it was the red potato chip, but you can create your own natural break. “I portion out a snack on a plate or in a plastic bag and leave the rest in the kitchen,” says Wansink. “I may get up for seconds, but I’ll have to make a conscious effort to do so.” (And, as some of his other studies show, you’re far less likely to go back for more food if you have to walk a couple of steps for it than if you have the package in front of you.) If you absolutely must dig your hand into a bag, pick up single-serve packages, such as Nabisco’s 100 Calorie Packs. (Here are some more ways to prevent snacking too much.)
Ignore the Health Halo
Using a similar setup, Wansink asked another 100 or so women to his lab to watch a video and gave them same-size packages of low-fat granola to nosh on. The trick? Only half were labeled low-fat—and the women who got those ate 49% more (an extra 84 calories) than those whose bags bore no health claim. What’s going on? “Many people think low-fat means low-cal,” he explains. “We assume that if a food is healthy in one way, it’s good for us in all ways.” That’s how we get tricked by what Wansink calls “health halos”—the growing number of claims on food packaging trumpeting the lack of fat, the gobs of fiber, or the illness that the food prevents. (Like the “100% natural” foods that are anything but.) Although all these assertions may be true, it’s calories that count if you’re trying to lose weight. After all, a trans-free doughnut still contains about 200 calories more than you can probably afford. So bypass such claims and head straight to the calorie info on the label to determine if a food really is diet friendly.
Fixate on Fullness
In another sneaky study, 54 college students showed up to rate the quality of cafeteria food. Instead, each was served an 18-ounce bowl of Campbell’s tomato soup. Some bowls were rigged to food-grade rubber tubing that snaked under the table and connected to a 6-quart soup vat that constantly refilled the bowl (surprisingly, only one student caught on to the bottomless-bowl-of-soup trick). After 20 minutes, students with the automatically refilling soup bowls ate an average of 15 ounces of soup, while the other students consumed about 9 ounces—a 135-calorie difference. What’s going on? Most people will eat what’s put in front of them, stopping or slowing down only when a bowl is almost empty or when most of the food on their plate is gone. Hunger doesn’t enter into it. “I think the stomach has three settings,” says Wansink. “They’re ‘I’m stuffed,’ ‘I’m full, but I could eat more,’ and ‘I’m starving.’ Your goal is to recognize when you’re full and not eat more.” Don’t rely on the amount of food left on your plate to signal when you’re full. Instead, listen to your body’s cues. (Think you can’t stop at just one bite? Think again.) [pagebreak]
Leave the Mess
Wansink is a real party animal. For one study, he invited 53 guests to a sports bar for a Super Bowl bash, during which he served free chicken wings and soft drinks. Waitresses were told to take away wings remnants from only half of the tables. The guests at the clean tables ended up eating seven chicken wings on average—two more than those whose tables held the visual proof of what they’d eaten. What’s going on? Unless you can see the damage, you’re not going to remember how much you ate—and you’ll eat more. A cluttered, messy table reminds you that you’ve eaten plenty. “At dinner parties, my wife and I often don’t clear empty wine bottles from the table so we don’t overindulge,” he says.
Hide Your Treats
During Administrative Professionals Week one year, Wansink and another researcher gave out clear or white candy dishes filled with 30 Hershey’s Kisses to the secretarial staff at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was once simultaneously professor of business administration, nutritional science, advertising, and agricultural and consumer economics. A tag explained that the candy was a personal gift and requested that the employee keep it on her desk and not share it. Wansink’s ulterior motive: finding out whether the recipients would eat more from the bowls in which they could see the candy. Every night for 2 weeks, after the staff went home, he went from office to office, counting Kisses and refilling dishes. Those who got a clear dish ate eight pieces of candy every day, but those who got an opaque dish had about four—more than a 100-calorie difference. What’s going on? “We eat with our eyes,” explains Wansink. “Having food in plain sight tempts people to eat every time they look at it.” But surprisingly, that doesn’t mean Wansink wants you to keep your kitchen and office junk-food free. “That only makes you feel deprived,” he says. “When you’re feeling deprived, your diet is doomed.” Instead, keep small amounts of your favorite treats in the house (yep—chocolate counts), but hide them out of sight and out of easy reach—in an opaque container on a high shelf, at the back of the pantry, or in a distant room. “I stash a couple of bottles of Coke in my refrigerator in the basement,” says Wansink. “It’s a hassle to run down there and get it when I want a bottle, so I don’t do it that often.” Conversely, keep healthy snacks where you can see and grab them. When you get a sugar jones, you can reach for that luscious pear on your desk or a banana from the glass bowl on the dining room table.
Pour Smarter
Wansink and his crew went into bars in Philadelphia and asked the bartenders to pour a standard 1 1/2-ounce shot of whiskey or rum into either a tall, skinny 11-ounce highball glass or a short, fat 11-ounce tumbler. The pros were on target for the highball glasses, but overpoured by 37% into the tumblers—even when they were asked to take their time. The point: “If bartenders can’t pour the right amount, what hope do you have?” says Wansink. What’s going on? It’s a trick of the eye—we tend to perceive objects that are tall as larger than short, squat ones. That means you’re more likely to fill a low, wide juice glass to the brim but stop about halfway for the tall highball glass, even if they hold the same amount of liquid. So replace any short, wide glasses with tall, slim ones. (Check out other kitchenware that helps you lose weight.) Likewise, balloon-like red wine glasses can trick you into serving yourself more than the recommended 5 ounces a day. “My wife wasn’t happy about it, but we got rid of all the red wine glasses that we received for our wedding,” says Wansink. And there are no juice glasses in his house, either. More from Prevention: The Wine Allergy You Don’t Know You Have [pagebreak]
Know Where You Overeat
When moviegoers in Chicago went to a 1 pm flick, Wansink and his colleagues gave them a treat—free medium or large buckets of popcorn—if they were willing to answer “concession-related” questions after the film. But this treat was a trick—the popcorn was stale. Most people reported that it tasted bad. Despite that and the fact that they’d eaten lunch before the movie, the average patron consumed more than 250 calories’ worth of stale popcorn—more if they received a large container. What’s going on? You may be more influenced by where you are (at the movies), what you’re doing (sitting in the dark, watching an engrossing flick), and what the people you’re with are doing (also chomping away) than by the taste and quality of the food in front of you or your own hunger. That’s why you’ll have popcorn at the movies, hot dogs at the ballpark, and ice cream on a hot summer night, no matter how they taste or how full you are. If you find that you’re tempted to start eating, have a bottle of water or pop a piece of sugar-free gum as a substitute. (Also, arm yourself with our healthy summer eating tips.)
Serve Small
Forty graduate students showed up for a Super Bowl party that Wansink threw on the pretense that he was studying the new commercials. The real deal: His crew weighed how much Chex Mix guests took from either half-gallon- or gallon-size bowls by using a scale hidden under a tablecloth. He discovered that the students who served themselves from the gallon bowl took 53% more than those who served themselves from the smaller bowl. What’s going on? “We use background objects as a benchmark for estimating size,” says Wansink. “If all the serving bowls are big, what ends up on our plate is a big portion.” That’s why you should stick to serving bowls that hold just 4 to 6 cups of food. And scale down everything else: Portion out the food with a tablespoon rather than a much-larger serving spoon, and, as Wansink did, switch to salad plates in place of Frisbee-size dinnerware. (Not portion perfect? You can be with our simple size chart!)
Rate the Taste
Guests at the Spice Box in Illinois—a testing ground for wannabe chefs—received a free glass of wine with their meals, courtesy of Wansink. Tables on the right side of the room were offered their drink from “a new winery in California”; the left side got theirs from “a new winery in North Dakota.” Except for this wording, both labels were identical. In reality, all of the wine was the ultracheap Charles Shaw brand—often referred to as “Two-Buck Chuck”—from Trader Joe’s. All guests could order whatever they wanted off the same menu. Those who received the California wine ate on average 11% more of their food than those who got the North Dakota vintage. What’s going on? “Once patrons saw the wine was from California, they said to themselves, This meal is going to be good,” says Wansink. “And once they concluded that, their experience lined up to confirm their expectations.” A great rating, fancy tableware, a prestigious label—or a free glass of wine or appetizer—doesn’t guarantee quality. Imagine you’re a restaurant reviewer and critically examine the flavor of whatever you are eating. If you don’t care for the dish, don’t finish it. And if your whole meal has been only so-so, don’t take a chance on dessert. Ask yourself, Is this food really worth the calories? If it isn’t, stop eating.
Keep Snacks Simple
PTA parents attending a special meeting to view a video each received a bag of M&M’s. Though the bags were the same size, the M&M’s inside were different: Some of the packages contained 7 colors, while others had 10. Those with the most colorful candies ate a whopping 43 more candies than those whose bags held 7 hues. What’s going on? “When there’s a variety of foods—even if the difference is as subtle as the color of M&M’s–people want to try them all,” he says. “So they end up eating more—a lot more, in fact.” Use variety to your advantage. Keep seven or eight different kinds of fruits and veggies in the house rather than three or four. Look for prepackaged produce that offers variety. But when it comes to high-cal, high-fat treats, keep choices to a minimum. If you must have M&M’s, stock up on holiday versions, which usually contain only two or three colors. (And definitely consider noshing on these healthiest packaged foods.) And what about those women who ate the fake Bolognese for lunch? Those who thought the Beefaroni was a gourmet feast ate considerably more than those who were told that lunch came from a can. One woman even said, “It was the best lunch I had all week.” More from Prevention: 400-Calorie Snacks
