There is a new book out called Mindless Eating, in which the author by way of experimentation demonstrated that so much of our eating is dependent on our visual perception and not on how full we are. Today I was talking to a moderately over weight man in his late 20’s about proper eating habits. When I was finished I asked if he felt he could at least do some of the guidelines. There was a long pause then he commented that it would be hard as he said, “I tend to just stuff myself.”
I think many Americans are like this. Although exercise is important in weight loss studies have shown that restriction of calories is far more important. Many people just do not know when they have eaten enough. Either they are distracted with watching TV, or reading the paper, or just eat so fast that their stomach does not have time to send signals to the brain that it has had enough. And thus we end up “stuffing ourselves” and gaining weight.