Why you eat so much

The Washington Post:

Almost 20 years ago, psychology professor and biologist Paul Rozin tested a theory about food. Many people believed their bodies were good at telling them when to start and stop eating, but he wasn’t so sure.

“A lot of things that control what and how much people eat have nothing to do with the state of nutrition,” Rozin told The New York Times in 1998.

…

“I don’t think people are totally unaware of these sorts of things, but I’m not convinced they realize how much they influence the amount they eat,” said Traci Mann, who teaches psychology at the University of Minnesota and has been studying eating habits, self-control and dieting for more than 20 years. “They definitely add up. If you’re eating 10 or 15 percent more at every meal, that’s going to add up.”

But other influences are far less obvious. A recent peer-reviewed study found that something as innocuous-seeming as the size of a table can affect how people perceive the food that’s placed in front of them — the larger the table, the harder it is for people to discern that they have been served less food, and the more easily they are satiated.

Read the whole story: The Washington Post