A recent study found that your eyes really do tell your stomach how full you are. Researchers used two different “tricks” to convince people they were eating more making them believe they were more full than they actually were.

In the first experiment, scientists told subjects they were going to make them smoothies. One group was shown the actual ingredients (a modest portion) and another group was shown the same ingredients but with larger portion sizes.  Both groups were actually served the same amount but three hours later the group that had seen the larger bowl of fruit felt more satisfied.

In the second experiment, subjects were given a bowl of soup with a tube attached to it. All subjects started with the same amount of soup and were shown the same amount of ingredients before they started eating.  During their meal, scientists manipulated the amount of soup by either adding or taking away more as the subjects ate.  The end result?  Everyone felt pretty much the same level of satiety no matter how much soup they had eaten.  Their eyes told them how much they ate, their stomach didn’t.

Kinda cool, isn’t it?  I have to wonder on the second experiment how much snickering was happening with the grad students who were probably the ones manipulating the tube to the soup bowl.

To use this to your advantage try these “tricks” for yourself:

Eat on smaller dishes. The average plate size has crept up over the decades.  In the 1940s it was 9 1/2″ in diameter; today it’s 11 1/2″.  If you fill your plate today you’re eating quite a bit more food.  With a smaller plate you’ll have the appearance of abundance while actually ingesting less food.

Take a moment to “look” at the food you’re eating. We tend to just shovel food on our plate and dig in without thinking about it, mostly because our prior experience “tells” us what’s there.  Take a beat or two and look at the food you’re eating — quantity, texture, color, aroma, etc.  Absorb it all and then eat.

Compare your plate to standard portion sizes. A cup of food is about the same size as a baseball.  A serving of meat is about the same as a deck of cards.  Start serving yourself these standard portions and even though it looks like less on your plate, understand it’s the amount you should be eating and it won’t seem so small.  I literally recommend putting a deck of cards in your kitchen to compare your meal to.

Our  minds are so used to seeing portion sizes on TV and at restaurants, huge and overflowing plates of sumptious foods.  We’ve reset our brains into thinking these portion sizes are normal and if we’re eating less than this we’re starving ourselves. Since 66% of the country is overweight, clearly we’re not.

If we adjust our thinking, we’ll adjust our waistlines.

By downsizing our bias’ on portion sizes our bodies will get the proper nutrition but instead of thinking of it as self-inflicted torture we’ll be sated and happy and NOT focused on food.

How cool is that?  What do you think?

Lisa

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