eating

Here’s some interesting news to chew on…

A recent study examined how the number of times you chew your food relates to satisfying your hunger. What they found was intriguing. Forty chews was the magic number.

When people in the study ate a small serving of almonds, 40 chews satisfied hunger better than 10. And even when they looked at people taking 25 chews with almonds, it wasn’t as effective. On top of the benefit of feeling full, the magic number of 40 chews also made the subjects feel full longer than the lower counts.

I’m not very good with charts. It’s one of the reasons that, when I got to calculus in college, I changed my coursework from Architecture to English. But even I can understand what this chart amounts to:

Weight loss marketing may have some strange and unintended consequences. New research from the University of Illinois suggests that campaigns promoting exercise may actually cause people to eat more.

“Viewers of the exercise messages ate significantly more (than their peers, who viewed other types of messages),” said psychology professor Dolores Albarracín, who led the research. “They ate one-third more when exposed to the exercise ads.”

Phrases such as “join a gym” or “take a walk” had the averse effects on people in the study.

These phrases were juxtaposed to opposing words like “make friends” or “be in a group.” Researchers found that these phrases didn’t have the same effect.

This study further builds upon previous research by Albarracín that suggests fitness messaging can have unintended side effects, some negative.

(via: Science Daily)

After your brain registers that you are full, are any of these thoughts familiar as you continue to eat?

This is so good.

I love this restaurant; leftovers for lunch is such a treat.

There’s not really enough here to save. It would be a shame to waste any of this.

Next time I’ll divide it into three portions instead of two.

I just won’t eat as much for dinner. I’m sure I won’t get hungry as quickly if I finish this.

At least I’m not having soda with lunch this time.

Why am I doing this?

Now I feel too full. I’m tired and won’t get enough work done.

I think you can quickly identify what thought(s) led to the choice to join the clean plate club, despite feeling full. You can probably also quickly identify the thought(s) that lead to guilt.

Breakfast is often touted as the most important meal of the day. And while it’s not a good idea to play down any of your daily meals, there could be some truth to it, according to new research.

But the importance of breakfast is tied to how healthy the meal is.

Researchers analyzed data from a national health survey and found that people who ate lower-calorie foods for breakfast tended to have a higher-quality diet overall.