The Incidental Diet: How to Lose Weight Without Really Trying
...A new study offers another stress-free tip to losing weight: Eat at home. Though many have argued as much because of the sheer volume of unsavory food options at places like McDonald's, a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that dining in home-like environments engenders better food choices. "If the association between positive emotion and healthy food is built in the home," explains lead author and McGill University professor Laurette Dube, "then that environment can serve as a reminder of that association and motivate people to choose healthier food that can make them happier."
Similar to research showing that equating exercise with fun energizes people, the scientists saw that there's also a virtuous cycle when it comes to healthful eating and the home. After monitoring the emotions, consumption environments, and food choices of 160 non-obese participants for 10 days, the researchers noticed that happiness linked to a cozy, homey setting resulted in wiser dietary choices that in turn reinforced feelings of joy at home. This pattern, however, was absent elsewhere. In foreign settings, our hardwired preference for high-fat, sugary food tended to win, most likely because the emotional signals needed to suppress this urge weren't triggered or were simply ignored. As Dube puts it, "Home is a place where we interact with our food."
The potential of using home design, relaxing music, and other atmospheric cues to diet goes beyond vanity. Dube, who directs the McGill World Platform for Health and Economic Convergence, says these subtle manipulations may also be useful for obesity interventions. Since the majority of the more than 200 food-related choices we make daily are made in a relatively mindless manner, she says using psychological and contextual factors could work. University of Texas at Arlington marketing professor Adwhait Khare agrees: "As much of home food consumption is likely to be habitual, it is important to put the right cues in place to induce healthy eating."...
Read full article: The Atlantic, October 6, 2011
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