Strategies to avoid mindless holiday eating
 The holiday party is a scenario every dieter dreads. Take a high-fat multi-course meal, throw in a dash of clashing family members, let the underlying resentment simmer, and you've got a recipe for diet disaster.
But one expert says even the wariest weight-watchers can avoid piling on the pounds with his advice: Spend less time counting calories, and more worrying about the size of your plate.
After years of research on the impact of subtle cues on our food consumption, Brian Wansink, PhD, author of the new book "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More than we Think" says the way to lose weight is not by obsessing over carbs or fat content.
Instead, dieters should pay closer attention to "hidden persuaders," Wansink dishes in his new book "Mindless Eating, Why We Eat More than We Think We Eat."
"The three major things that really cause us to mindlessly eat end up being distractions, end up being food accessibility and food variety," Wansink told CTV.ca during a phone interview from Sioux City, Iowa.
"Boy, this makes the holidays just a diet disaster waiting to happen."
By becoming aware of these triggers, we can reverse their influences without depriving ourselves, says Wansink, professor and director of the Cornell University food and brand lab in Ithaca, N.Y.
People don't overeat because they are especially hungry or because the food tastes so much better during the holidays, says Wansink.
Rather, people are compelled to pig out because of the cues around them, including their company, convenience, distractions, variety, packaging, and plate size.
In one study, Wansink and his team found that when a dish with Hershey's Kisses was placed on someone's desk, they ate nine of them a day. When it was placed six feet away, they ate only four.
In another experiment, Wansink pumped soup into refillable bowls from beneath the table. The tests, which were meant to determine whether people stopped eating without the cue of an empty bowl, found people ate 73 per cent more soup.
Wansink says people trying to lose weight would be better served changing behaviours that could cut a relatively painless 100-200 calories a day.
Some 100 calories a day may not seem like much, but it can add up to 5 pounds over three months, Wansink says.
- Mary Nersessian
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