The See-Food, Reach-Food Diet
By Tom Venuto
You’ve
heard of the “See-Food” diet haven’t you? No, that’s not the diet where
you load up on fish, lobster, crab and mussels. The See-Food Diet is
the one that so many of us crack jokes about – it’s the diet where you
eat everything in sight! But don’t laugh too hard. Scientists at
Cornell University and other research institutions have proven that you
actually WILL eat more food if you see food more.
In fact, if you can
see it and it’s within arm’s reach, you could eat yourself obese within
a few years and not even know what hit you because the eating happens
unconsciously.
It should be common sense that when you’re constantly surrounded by food, you tend to eat more.
But
one thing that hasn’t been clear until recently was how seeing food
(visibility) and having it within reach (proximity) could influence
unconscious eating (and how it influences what I call “eating amnesia”).
Developmental
psychologists tell us that the more effort or time you invest in a
unique activity, the more likely you’ll be to remember it.
In
other words, if you have to go out of your way to get food, you’ll
remember eating it. If the food is right there within arms reach,
you’ll munch away and more easily forget it.
For
years, Dr. Brian Wansink of the Food and Brand Laboratory at Cornell
University has been conducting fascinating experiments to find out what
really makes you eat more food than you need.
Some
of his previous studies revealed that taste, palatability, mood,
stress, social context, role models (parental influence), visual cues,
visibility and convenience can all influence how much you eat (Eating
behavior is environmentally and psychologically influenced – appetite
is not just biological).
To
explore the influence of food proximity and visibility on eating
behavior, Wansink set up an experiment using 40 female staff members
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain. The subjects were
not told it was a weight loss or calorie-related study.
They were told
that they would be given a free candy dish filled with chocolates
(candy “kisses”) and they’d be contacted and surveyed about their candy
preferences. They were also told not to share the candies, take them
home or move the dish.
Participants were divided into four groups:
1) Proximate and visible (can see and reach)
2) Proximate and non-visible (can reach but not see)
3) Less proximate and visible (can see but can’t reach)
4) Less proximate and non visible (can’t see, and can’t reach)
During
each day of the four week study, 30 chocolates were placed in 20 clear
containers and 20 opaque containers and delivered to the 40 subjects.
The containers were replenished every afternoon. They were kept in the
same location for 4 straight business days and then rotated on the
following week. Researchers kept a daily record of the number of
chocolates eaten from each container and comparisons were made from the
data collected.
At
the end of each week, each subject was given a questionnaire which
asked them how much they thought they had eaten over the entire week
and asked them about their perceptions regarding the chocolates (such
as “it was difficult to stop eating them,” “I thought of eating the
chocolates often,” etc).
When the results were tabulated, here’s what Dr. Wansink and his research team discovered:
The
visibility and proximity of the candy dish also influenced the
subject’s perceptions. Regardless of whether participants could
actually see the chocolates, if the candies were sitting on the desk
(as opposed to being a mere 2 meters away), they were rated as more
attention-attracting and difficult to resist.Sweets in the clear
containers were also rated as more difficult to resist and more
attention attracting.
Most
interesting of all, this study confirmed that when food is close by and
visible, you’ll not only eat more, you’ll also be likely to forget that
you ate them and therefore, underestimate how much you’ve eaten (I like
to call that “eating amnesia.”)
Is a few extra candies a day really a big deal?
If
it becomes habitual it sure is! Over a year, the difference between the
candy dish placement would mean 125 calories per day which adds up to
12 extra pounds of body fat over a year.
When
given the advice to keep junk food out of the house and office, I often
hear complaints that it’s “impossible” to do because the rest of the
family would have a fit, or simply not allow it. As for the office, one
of the biggest excuses I’ve heard for diet failure is that the
temptations are always there and it’s out of your control to change.
Invariably someone else brings doughnuts or candy to the office.
Now you know what to do to reduce temptation and successfully stick with your program more effectively:,If
you can’t keep it out of your office or house, keep it out of sight and
out of arm’s reach. That alone is enough to reduce consumption.
At
home, if your significant other or family is not willing to remove all
offending foods from the premises, then get their agreement that their
food is not to remain in plain sight - it goes in the back of a
refrigerator drawer and not on the shelf at eye level, or if
non-perishable, it goes inside a cupboard that is exclusively the
domain of the other person.
At
work, tell your office pals to keep the candy, doughnuts and other
temptations off your desk, at a distance and out of sight. If they put
any unhealthy snacks on your desk, promptly remove them!
Environmental
cues can trigger you to eat impulsively. If you can see it and reach
it, you’ll eat more of it, and you’ll forget how much you ate. So get
the junk out of your home and office now and if you can’t, then get it
out of your sight. If you can’t do that, get it out of arms reach.
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom
is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an
astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover
how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out
which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat
loss report and mini course by visiting Tom's site at:www.BurnTheFat.com
