FitnessMantra Weekend: See How Much You Are Eating; Even Before You Begin
06
May
Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.
This week the best story has to be from the MSNBC article Take a good look before you gobble. The crux of the article is pretty straightforward: “If we could really see all that we’re putting in our mouths, we’d probably eat a lot less.”
The article works off the old axiom that it takes our stomachs at least 20 minutes to send the “Full” signal to our brains by which time it’s likely we have already chowed down more food than we really need.
The article goes on to describe this startling experiment:
In a study published this month in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, my colleague Dr. Collin Payne and I promised a free chicken wing buffet to 52 graduate students (17 men and 35 women) while they watched the Super Bowl at a sports bar in Urbana, Ill. As part of the study, the waitresses were instructed to clear the dishes at only half of the tables.
If people had their tables continually cleared, they continually ate. Clean plate, clean table, get more, eat more. Their stomachs didn’t keep track of how much they’d eaten, so the students kept on eating until they thought they were full. Each of these people ate an average of seven chicken wings apiece.
The students who did not have their table bused were less of a threat to the chicken population. After the game was over, they had eaten an average of two fewer chicken wings per person — that’s 28 percent less than those whose tables had been bused.
- Take a good look before you gobble
So, the best advice for people who are trying heard to control portions? Put everything you are going to eat in a given session onto your plate an then begin eating - studies mentioned in the article show you are likely to eat 14% less per sitting and believe me - that can make a big difference in your weight over long periods of time!
Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:
- Why eating soup could be the key to losing weight: Eating soup with a meal could be the answer to the obesity crisis, according to scientists in the US.
- Nutrition, On the Cheap: Eating healthfully is easy to do when you have the money to dine on wild Alaskan salmon, arugula and fresh raspberries. But is it is possible to eat well on a tight budget?
- Take a good look before you gobble: If we could really see all that we’re putting in our mouths, we’d probably eat a lot less.
- Study links calorie restriction to longer life: Scientists have known for seven decades that mice, dogs, fruit flies and other animals given diets bordering on starvation tended to live up to 40 percent longer than their better-fed cousins.
- Take the ‘Magic Road’ to a healthy Latino diet: A new food pyramid, designed to encourage Latinos to eat healthier, touts the staples of traditional Latin-American cooking as the path to better nutrition.
- Environment, routine behind rise in obesity: study: The speed at which Canadians are becoming obese and overweight suggests that everyday environments and routine modern behaviours may be to blame
- Kids chowing down on faux junk food in W.Va.: Dominated by doughnuts, pizza and foods-on-a-stick, the average school menu in West Virginia can read like the offerings at a glutton’s dream buffet.
- Yoga helps breast cancer survivors: In breast cancer survivors, the Iyengar method of yoga not only promotes psychological well-being, but seems to offer immune system benefits as well, according to research reported Monday.
- How pistachios help the heart: A handful or two of pistachio nuts a day could keep heart disease at bay, research suggests.
- KFC, Taco Bell finish switch to trans-fat-free oil: KFC’s fried chicken buckets soon will be stamped with a health message along with the famous likeness of its founder, Colonel Harland Sanders. The banner proclaims that its chicken has zero grams of trans fat per serving.
- Fatsecret: For Fat People Who Want To Be Less So: There’s a new Australia-based social network called FatSecret - it’s designed to help overweight people leverage a network of friends and online resources to lose weight.
- Kids ‘eat more after watching ads’: Obese and overweight children who watch food adverts on TV more than double their food intake afterwards, new research suggests.
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Have a great weekend!
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