HEALTH SPECIAL... WANT TO AVOID OVEREATING?

WANT TO AVOID OVEREATING? Hoodwink yourself into eating less Here’s how to avoid overeating without thinking     All of us have indulged in mindless eating. Be it polishing off a whole bag of chips while watching TV, gorging on ice-creams and chocolate after a bitter argument or guzzling cup after cup of coffee while at work out of habit, we have all been there and done that. Little do we realise that we overeat not because we are hungry, but because of emotional and environmental factors.     Studies have shown that people overeat up to 40% while watching TV. Also, the bigger the size of our plates, the more we serve ourselves. Here are some cool tips to avoid eating mindlessly: Savour every morsel you eat instead of wolfing down your food SAVOUR EACH BITE     This is perhaps the oldest trick in the book. If you’re going to devour food as if you haven’t eaten for a week, you are bound to go overboard. So, don’t be in a hurry. Instead, start savouring every morsel that you put in your mouth. CHOOSE A SMALLER PLATE It’s simple logic. We tend to pile more food on bigger plates. On a smaller plate, due to lack of space, we serve lesser food. Research suggests we eat lesser by up to 20%, this way. DIM THE AMBIENCE     According to an international study conducted on fast food chains, a dimly lit ambience and soothing music inspired people to eat lesser by up to 18%. Now, that’s the kind of ambience typically found in fine-dining restaurants. But why control food intake only at fine-dining restaurants? Do it at home as well. AVOID HUGE GULPS, TAKE SMALL SIPS This may not sound like a tip, but it works. Consuming liquid in small sips helps us. A recent study showed that people drink more when they took bigger sips. That’s because they underestimated how much they drank. PARCEL IT HOME     Subconsciously, we end up eating whatever is served to us in restaurants. But at times, even when we are aware, we finish off those huge portions for two reasons — to avoid wasting food and to utilise every rupee of our hardearned money spent on the meal.     Well, here’s how you can kill both birds with one stone — pack and take it home. Eat only what you want and ask for the remaining to be parceled. Don’t bother about sounding like a cheapskate when you ask for a parcel. There’s nothing cheap about not wasting food! OPT FOR FOODS WITH STRONG SMELLS A survey has shown this is a great method to ensure you take smaller portions. The participants were served vanilla custard, with varying degrees of vanilla scent. The researchers found that the greater the intensity of the scent, the lesser the participants ate. USE CONTRAST-COLOURED CUTLERY     Want to polish down lesser quantity of rice? Well, ditch that whitecoloured plate. When the colour of the food and the plate is the same, it has a camouflage effect. That will make us serve and eat more. But by using contrastcoloured plates, we will heap lesser food.  Lisa Antao  BT130206