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Do Your Surroundings Affect How Much You Eat?

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Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusets

Madison Square Garden, New York City
Volpaia, Tuscany, Italy
Penn Station, New York City

Where Would You Rather Eat?

Duh!!!  Obviously, most people would choose the beautiful settings in the Martha’s Vineyard or Tuscany pictures — or anywhere in the world that is just as serene and welcoming.

But . . . the real question is:  what is your goal?

The Setting And Your Surroundings Will Affect How Much You Eat

They will also affect how fast you eat and how long you take to eat.  According to Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating and director of Cornell’s Food and brand Lab, the atmosphere of a restaurant can get you to overeat in two ways:  if it’s really pleasant you want to stay longer — and therefore order and eat more, or if it is very brightly lit and perhaps loud and irritating you usually gulp and run, probably overeating before you realize that you’re full.

Red and Gold Decor Versus White Tablecloths

Fast food and high turnover restaurants are decorated for speed eating.  No pleasant pastels and soft music here. Instead you’ll find loud music, noise reflecting off of hard surfaces, and high arousal color schemes, often red and gold.  It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to communicate to your brain that  you are full and this red and gold, noisy environment makes you gulp your food and reach for more way before 20 minutes have come and gone.

On the other hand, people tend to linger at restaurants with low lighting, soft music, flowers, and tablecloths.  The attentive waitstaff are there to offer you more and more food courses — and you are likely to jump at the offer(s). In this type of eating environment you end up ordering and eating more than you had planned.

SocialDieter Tip:

Restaurant decor is not an accident — it is designed with the intention of keep you at the table longer or getting you to eat and run.  How long does it take you to gobble down a Big Mac or chow mein?  The red and gold color schemes in many Chinese and fast food restaurants encourage you to chow down quickly.   The white tablecloths and soft music of the “fancy” restaurant you frequent make it oh so easy to linger longer — and order another glass of wine, dessert, coffee, and after dinner drink.  Know your setting:  pace yourself in the speed environment and avoid the temptation to keep ordering in the relaxed environment.

Olive Oil Or Butter On Your Bread?

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Shiny Foil Packets Of Butter

It used to be only butter on bread – big slabs, small pots, or foil wrapped rectangles.  You can still find all of these – what would a diner be without those sometimes rock hard, sometimes soft and squishy, gold or silver foil wrapped butter packets?

Butter or Oil?

Butter has stiff competition from olive oil for bread sopping and dipping – as opposed to butter spreading.  Olive oil arrives green or golden, plain, herbed or spiced.  It can be just plopped down on your table, or poured with flourish from a dark tinted bottle.  Some restaurants offer a selection for dipping – and attempt to educate you about the variation in flavors depending upon the olives’ country of origin.

Hidden cameras in Italian restaurants showed that people who put olive oil on a piece of bread eat more fat and calories than if they use butter on their bread. But, the olive oil users end up eating fewer pieces of bread.

For the study, 341 restaurant goers were randomly given olive oil or blocks of butter with their bread. Following dinner, researchers calculated the amount of olive oil or butter and the amount of bread that was consumed.

How Much Butter, How Much Oil, How Much Bread?

Adult diners given olive oil for their bread used 26% more oil on each piece of bread compared to those who were given block butter, but they ended up eating 23% less bread in total.

The researchers found:

  • Olive oil users used 26% more olive oil on each slice of bread compared to block butter users (40 vs. 33 calories)
  • Olive oil users ate 23% less bread over the course of a meal than the people who used butter

The olive oil users had a heavier hand than the butter users – for individual slices of bread.  However, over the course of the meal when the total amount of bread and either oil or butter was accounted for, the olive oil users used more per slice, but, overall they ate less bread and oil over the course of the meal. They also took in 17% fewer bread calories:  264 calories (oil eaters) vs. 319 calories (butter eaters).

SocialDieter Tip:

Butter, oil, and bread all add significant calories to a meal. A tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories, a tablespoon of butter has 102 calories, one pat of butter has around 36 calories.  Butter and oil are all fat; olive oil is loaded with heart healthy monounsaturated fat, butter is filled with heart unhealthy saturated fat.  Bread varies significantly in calories depending on the type of bread and the size of the piece.  Most white bread and French bread averages around 90 to 100 calories a slice. Most dinner rolls average 70 to 75 calories each. The bread and butter or olive oil pre-dinner (and maybe during dinner) ritual can be a real caloric bump for a meal, without much nutritional value.  So many of us chow down mindlessly on bread and butter or oil before a meal – because we’re hungry – or, because it’s there for easy nibbling.  Choose to eat it or don’t let the bread basket land on your table.  The choice is yours – just be mindful of the calories.

Why Do You Eat — Even When You’re Not Hungry?

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Have you ever looked down to see crumbs all over your lap with a telltale wrapper clutched in your hand, and asked yourself, “Why did I eat that?”  Or, maybe after your second helping of spaghetti followed by ice cream, followed by a horrendously full stomach you’ve thought, “I’m such an idiot, why did I eat all of that?”

Why, Oh Why?

Why do we eat so much – often when we’re not even hungry? There are a bunch of reasons. They’re not difficult to understand – the hardest part is forcing yourself to take a good look at your habits and routines.

What Time Is It?

You might not realize it, but your body generally likes routines and your brain likes structure. One reason you’re hungry at noontime is because you’ve taught your body to expect breakfast, lunch and dinner around the same time every day. So you eat at the appointed hour – hungry or not.

See It, Eat It

Your body anticipates what and when food is coming. Doesn’t your mouth water thinking about Mom’s Christmas cookies or the hot cheesy pizza from your hometown hangout? How difficult is it to not eat once your mouth is watering and the thought of that food gets into your head?

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

You could chow down on a large meal but, as full as you might be, still make room for dessert.  Why? Probably because your desire for something sweet hasn’t been satisfied. Monotony often leads to searching for something different.  Ever been on a diet where you eat the same thing all of the time?  What generally happens when you can’t stand it any more?  Enough said.

Doesn’t That Smell Delicious?

Sight and smell can start a cascade of appetite signals.  The wafting scent of something delicious is one way your body knows that food is close by. This can trigger insulin secretion – which makes you think you’re hungry. If you think you’re hungry, you eat.

Booze

Beer, wine or liquor can impair your judgment, which often results in eating more.  Watching what you eat is harder if you’ve been drinking.

It’s Cold Outside – Or In The Restaurant

Ever walk into a restaurant and feel like you’re going to freeze? Restaurants often intentionally keep the thermostat set low because the colder the temperature, the more you tend to eat.  Heat can act as a satiety signal. Your metabolism tends to drop when it’s time to eat and eating warms you up.

Candy, Pasta, Cereal, Bread, Cookies; Refined Carbs and Sugars; A Whole Lot Of White Stuff

If you eat a meal that’s filled with refined carbohydrates like white pasta or white rice, in only a few hours your body may crave food again. Simple carbohydrate foods are digested quickly which causes blood sugar to spike and then drop. When your blood sugar crashes, you’re a lot more interested in food because your body is sending messages to take in food to help raise blood sugar levels again.

Habits and Routines

Doing the same thing each day, taking the same route home, going into a restaurant with a certain specialty, walking into Mom’s kitchen and heading straight for the cookie jar, are all habits or routines.  For instance, many people find that changing up the route home – avoiding passing right by their favorite bakery or ice cream parlor – will eliminate the craving for a food that had become part of an afternoon routine.

Holidays, Traditions, and Celebrations

Somehow special events scream, “All filters, guards, restraints, and rational thinking are dismissed for the event, day, or season.”  Think about the last wedding you went to, Thanksgiving dinner, or last year’s mega Christmas party.  Did you eat and drink more than you wanted to – or should have?  Why? For many of us a special occasion signals eat and drink without constraint.

Happy, Sad, Spurned, Rejected, And Any Emotion In Between

Yep, emotions. Emotional eating is a frequently a way people suppress or soothe their stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness, loneliness, and a whole spectrum of negative emotions. These are things that can be caused by major life events or by the hassles of every day life. High calorie, sweet, and fatty foods, often in large quantities, tend to be the choice of emotional eaters.

SocialDieter Tip:

Most of us have times when we eat when we’re not hungry.  Sometimes it’s a one shot deal – or maybe it’s something that happens annually, like at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  We can learn to manage by balancing caloric intake and increasing activity levels.  But, if emotional eating triggers smothering stress or unhappiness with food – or if eating becomes a form of procrastination or relief from boredom, extra weight can begin to pile on.  It may be time to take stock of your habits and routines and to come up with a plan to shake things up a bit.