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Brian Wansink on Tricking Ourselves into Eating Better: PYP 288

Brian Wansink is hiding behind a tiny plate for a very good reason.

He's the researcher behind some of the most surprising findings in recent behavioral science, the most famous of these involving the interaction between plates and bowls and eating behavior.

Specifically, he found that changing the size of dinnerware had a big impact on how much food people will consume.

Small plate, eat less. Big plate, eat more.

Same with bowls (although he conducted a very sneaky bowl experiment that dealt with volume but not size – listen to the interview for details).

And the weird thing was, the experimental subjects swore up and down that they eat when they were hungry, and stopped when they were satisfied – and that the size of the plate or bowl had nothing to do with their decision to stop eating.

Brian got a lot of attention when his book Mindless Eating was published.

Companies like Google brought him in to redesign their cafeterias to promote healthier eating.

His work led to the development of 100-calorie packs of cookies and crackers, and to making bar glasses taller to prevent overfilling.

YouTube player

His research has come under some fire lately, due to concerns over study design and replicability. We discussed the controversy, and the difference between theory and practice, and how science should proceed to sort out the battle of ideas.

But mostly we discussed his insights as they apply to you and me, in our everyday lives, and the ways we can take advantage of mindlessness to moderate our consumption and be healthier, leaner, and happier.

We covered:

  • Brian's “origin story” selling vegetables door to door in Iowa
  • the factors that we don't pay attention to are often the easiest to fix
  • embracing the insulting title of “pracademic”
  • the amazing endless soup bowl – purpose and invention
  • our mistaken belief that we're immune from environmental influences
  • how the French know dinner is over vs how people in Chicago know
  • “if we knew what the answer would be, we wouldn't call it research”
  • natural vs unnatural experiments
  • why deprivation diets fail
  • even 3 changes is too much for most people
  • the 20-second rule
  • the Smarter Lunchroom movement of 29,000 schools
  • how to prevent ironic blowback – by not noticing you've been influenced
  • why food companies can embrace selling less food while still maximizing profits
  • why it's hard to replicate Brian's findings in tightly controlled, unnatural experiments
  • people are 11% more likely to choose the first item on the buffet line
  • people eat less when they're happy
  • “say one cool thing that happened to you today” – can change how much the family eats at dinner
  • and much more…

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box or audio recording box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

BrianWansink.com

HealthierByDesign.org

Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink

Slim by Design, by Brian Wansink

Smarter Lunchroom Movement

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Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons
– Kim Harrison
– Lynn McLellan
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for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain amazon affiliate links. I may receive amazon gift certificates from your actions on such links.

Dr Howie Jacobson

This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).

My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.

Here are three gigs that I do:

1. Trigger-Free Leadership: Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation

I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high  performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.

At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.

My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.

2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance

I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.

We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.

The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.

3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams

I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.

So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.

You CAN Change Other People!

Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.

What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.

Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.

Disclosure

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.

1 comment on “Brian Wansink on Tricking Ourselves into Eating Better: PYP 288”

  1. Pingback: How to Tell Truth from BS: Glenn Murphy on PYP 482 - Plant Yourself

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Hi, I’m Howard Jacobson, host of the Plant Yourself Podcast, co-author of You Can Change Other People and Sick to Fit, and co-founder of WellStart Health Coach Academy.

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