food decisions

Do You Make 2, 20, Or 200 Food Decisions Every Day?

April 4, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 1 Comment

How many times a day do you think about food? How many times a day do you make a food choice? How do your environment and surroundings influence those decisions?

People grossly underestimate how many daily food related decisions they make – not by a little but by an average of more than 221 decisions.

And, most people are either unaware of how their environment influences their decisions — or they’re unwilling to acknowledge it.

Who, What, Where, When, And How Much

In one study The Cornell Food and Brand Lab asked 139 people to estimate how many decisions they make about food and beverages during one day. Then they were specifically asked how many “who, what, where, when, and how much” decisions they made for a typical snack, beverage, and meal – and how many meals, snacks, and beverages they ate during a typical date.

14.4 VS. 226.7 Decisions

The researchers then created an index to help them estimate the number of total decisions made daily. On average, people guessed they made 14.4 food related decisions each day. Amazingly, the researchers estimated that the average person in the study made 226.7 food related decisions each day. Obese people who participated in the study made 100+ more food related decisions than overweight people.

Bowls, Plates, And Packages

Another study of 379 people analyzed the effect of environmental factors like package size, serving bowl size, and plate size on how much they ate. Half of the people were assigned to what was called “exaggerated treatment” – they had larger packages, bowls, and plates than the other half of the people in the study. On average, 73% of the people who received “exaggerated treatment” thought they ate as much as they normally would – except they actually ate 31% more than the people who ate from the regular size packages, plates, and bowls.

When they were told how much more they ate and then were asked why they thought they might have eaten more:

8% admitted they might have eaten more
21% said they didn’t eat more
69% said that if they did eat more it was because they were hungry
Only 4% believed they had eaten more because of the larger sizes that acted as environmental cues.

Of the 200+ food related decisions you make each day, how many of them are heavily influenced by environmental factors like the size of food packaging and the bowls and plates you use for your food?

Can you save yourself some calories by paying attention to your food choices and decisions and by “sizing down” your bowls and plates?

We Eat A Ton Of Food

April 17, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

You’ll be amazed at how much food we eat!

According to the US Department of Agriculture, a typical American really does eat around a ton — actually 1,996 pounds of food every year.

How much – and of what?

Our food tonnage breaks down to about:

630 pounds of milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream
31 pounds of cheese
185 pounds of chicken, turkey, pork, and beef per person
197 pounds of wheat and other grains
273 pounds per person of fruit (a lot of water weight)
415 pounds of vegetables (the most popular choices are corn and potatoes)
141 pounds of sweeteners
85 pounds of fats and oil

Why We Choose And Eat Certain Foods

According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, why we choose to by certain foods is influenced by:

your income
the cost of the food
your ethnicity and gender
environmental factors: availability of fast food, food advertising, and food pricing
individual factors: how the food tastes, how convenient it is to buy and prepare, and how healthy you think the food is.

Often equally as important in our food decision making process is what’s in front of our noses. Food satisfies a physiological need – we need it for to fuel our bodies. But – as most of us know — a lot of us eat when we’re not hungry – with little regard for nutrition – because if we see it we eat it. Food is nurturing; it’s social; it’s emotional; it tastes good; and it’s often a great way to procrastinate or to keep those around you happy.

Two things are certain: Food and eating involve (often complex, often subliminal) decision-making -– and even if you don’t overindulge, when you add it all up — we eat a whole lot of pounds of food in a year.

Do You Believe You Make About 200 Food Decisions Every Day?

January 17, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Do you ever think about how many daily food decisions you make or how your environment influences those decisions?

The Cornell Food and Brand Lab, directed by Dr. Brian Wansink, did some studies that showed that people grossly underestimate how many daily food related decisions they make – not by a little but by an average of more than 221 decisions.

And, most people are also either unaware of how their environment influences their decisions — or they’re unwilling to acknowledge it.

Who, What, Where, When, And How Much

In one study the Food and Brand Lab asked 139 people to estimate how many decisions they make about food and beverages during one day. Then they were specifically asked how many “who, what, where, when, and how much” decisions they made for a typical snack, beverage, and meal – and how many meals, snacks, and beverages they ate during a typical date.

14.4 VS. 226.7 Decisions

Larger Packages, Bowls, And Plates

A second study of 379 people analyzed the effect of environmental factors like package size, serving bowl size, and plate size on how much they ate. Half of the people were assigned to what was called “exaggerated treatment” – they had larger packages, bowls, and plates than the other half of the people in the study. On average, 73% of the people who received “exaggerated treatment” thought they ate as much as they normally would – except they actually ate 31% more than the people who ate from the regular size packages, plates, and bowls.

When they were told how much more they ate and then were asked why they thought they might have eaten more:

8% admitted they might have eaten more
21% said they didn’t eat more
69% said that if they did eat more it was because they were hungry
Only 4% believed they had eaten more because of the larger sizes that acted as environmental cues.

Bottom Line

We make, on average, 200+ food related decisions each day and those decisions are heavily influenced by environmental factors like the size of food packaging and the bowls and plates we use for our food.

For additional information: Wansink, Brian and Jeffrey Sobal (2007), “Mindless Eating: The 200 Daily Food Decisions We Overlook,” Environment and Behavior 39:1, 106-123.