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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

HEALTHY LIVING WITH JANICE - SIZE MATTER, AND SO DOES COLOR


Are you trying to lose weight and having trouble doing so? Here are two tricks you should try when it comes to eating less:

First, use a smaller plate. Have you noticed that over the years, not only have we super-sized our food choices, we’ve also super-sized our dinnerware. If you’ve bought new dishes over the last few years, you know what I mean. The cereal bowls, dinner plates, and dessert plates are all much larger than they used to be.

We tend to fill our plates when we serve ourselves. Use a smaller dinner plate or bowl, and you’ll fill it with less food, thereby eating less. And don’t worry about leaving the table hungry. You won’t miss that extra food. It’s a psychological thing going on. You’ve cleaned your plate; you’ve eaten enough.

According to the Small Plate Movement, you can drop 18 pounds over the course of a year just by reducing the size of your plate.

Another tip that works is to change the color of your dishes. A study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people ate more when eating food served on a plate of the same color. So if you’re eating vanilla ice cream, don’t put it in a white bowl, and keep that chocolate cake off dark brown or black plates.

Great tips, Janice! Readers, what are some of your dieting tips? Let's hear from you. -- AP

1 comment:

Kathy said...

I don't know if a smaller plate would work for me. I'd just pile the food higher. Don't think the color of the plate would matter either. My dieting tip is don't have the fattening food in the house and then you can't eat it.