How Interior Design Is Making You Fat (Okay, Eat More)

By Gabriella Vigoreaux https://www.yahoo.com/health/how-interior-design-is-making-you-fat-okay-eat-more-94096161174.html
We make thousands of food decisions every single day: What to eat for lunch? How full do we feel? Should we stop eating now?

What so many of us don’t realize is how much design in our environment affects each and every one of our food decisions. Imagine: if, by tweaking the decor of your office or home, you could somehow influence the foods you eat — eventually eating healthily could become a mindless act.

In his new book, Slim By Design (out September 23rd), Cornell Professor Brian Wansink argues that the key to being naturally slim lies in changing the structure and design of places where we consume most of our calories — namely local restaurants and grocery stories.

For example: If you sit at a table that faces away from the buffet at a restaurant, you’ll be less likely to go back for seconds. If the entrance to the supermarket is through its bakery, you’ll be more likely to stock up with sugary carbs — like cookies and muffins. And if you store your chips in the front of your pantry, you’ll naturally reach for those first.

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At home:

1. “You can roughly predict a person’s weight by the food they have sitting out,” Wansink writes. That means: put those tempting foods in a place where they won’t stare you down when you’re hungry. Keep a bowl of fresh fruits and healthy snacks on the counter for easy snacking.

2. Make it easier to cook. Keep you kitchen tidy and organized with plenty of open space for food prep.

3. The more time you spend in your kitchen the more you will eat. Make your kitchen less lounge-y and more efficient by eliminating comfy chairs, TVs, iPads, or anything that would tempt you to linger around all that food.

At restaurants:

1. Practice the “Rule of Two,” which allows you to order any reasonable entree you like plus only two additional items. You could choose a cocktail and a dessert, an appetizer and a piece of bread, or maybe two pieces of bread if that’s what you feel like eating.

2. Be a pro at reading menus. Dish descriptions are very telling of how caloric a meal is going to be. Look for words like seasoned, roasted, marinated, fresh, and boiled. Avoid anything creamed, crispy, smothered, fried, or loaded.

3. Menus should be designed to indicate which options are healthier, but they usually aren’t. Dont be afraid to ask your server what the lightest entrees are or if something can be served in a half-sized portion.

SEE MORE: 3 Surprising Healthy Ingredient Swaps

At the supermarket:

1. Try dividing your cart, either mentally or with an object, like your purse or scarf. Are you trying to eat more fruits and vegetables? Place them in the front half of the cart and all other food items in the back. If you’re forced to ask yourself whether something belongs in the front or the back, you’re more likely to want to fill up the front.

2. Hit up the produce section first while your cart is empty and browse the entire selection. You are more likely to to put fruits and vegetables in your cart if it’s empty. Once your cart is full of healthy produce, hit up other healthy aisles, like canned foods or frozen fruits and vegetables, before going to the chip or candy aisle.

3. Supermarkets should highlight in-season produce with proper signage, healthy facts, and even tear-off recipe cards with ideas for how to cook the items.

At the office:

1. Pack your lunch whenever possible. You usually assemble brown bag lunches the night before or the morning of, when you’re already full, so it’s easier to pack healthy items. If your work has a cafeteria, ditch the tray. You’re less likely to to overeat if you can’t carry all that food back to your table.

2. Talk to your boss about encouraging walking meetings, when the weather permits or setting up a fitness room with occasional programs mid day.

3. Most office break rooms look like something out of a prison movie. Making them visually appealing with posters, pictures, and plants can encourage workers to eat a lunch in there instead of eating junk food at their desks or going out. Additionally, break rooms should be well-stocked with free healthy snacks.

SEE MORE: 5 Foods That Can Help Reduce Stress

In the lunchroom:

1. Schools can give vegetables creative or descriptive names to make them sound more appealing.

2. Move snack foods, like chips and cookies, behind the counter and offer them only if requested.

3. Feature healthy entrees by making them the most prominent in the lunch line and displaying the name on a menu board outside the cafeteria

Want to know if your food radius is slim by design? Wansink includes a score card at the end of each chapter so you can see just how much work needs to be done in your kitchens, offices, favorite restaurants, schools, and supermarkets.