Thursday, October 9, 2008

Hungry?

Everyone experiences hunger. This is a feeling experienced usually followed by a desire to eat. Some people choose to over react and eat a bunch of junk food, and others choose to have a nice snack. A researcher at Cornell University conducted an experiment where children were given cookies in a plastic baggie or were allowed to choose cookies from a platter. The kids eating cookies from the bag were satisfied that they had eaten their portion and didn't want any more, but the kids who ate from the platter wanted more even when the platter was empty. This experiment proves that by giving yourself a normal portion of a  snack you will be more satisfied than continuously eating without a stopping point. Unfortunately many Americans do not bother to look at portions and therefore gain excess weight. The article I read gave a few simple 100 calorie snacks that are easy to grab and eat on the go: 10 ritz bits peanut butter cracker, 2 sugar cones, fat-free yogurt, peanut butter on a celery stick, an apple, and one serving size of popcorn. There thousands of fine snacks its just important to eat the right portion of the food to stay as healthy as possible. Hunger can become overwhelming but by being smart about eating a small amount can make a big difference to your health.

1 comment:

Monica G said...

Very true! Keep in mind though another issue-- having that baggie packed with too much. Happens to me all the time. I have a determined amount to eat-- but the amount is too big. I agree with your opinion though, that if we chose smaller amounts it'd work out better. The experiment with the platter surprises me, actually, though I like the idea a lot. For me, eating off a platter would decrease the hunger, because I'd know that anything I didn't finish would be eaten by someone else, instead of going to waste. *shrugs* But then again, that's a new topic, really, and I don't feel like getting into in-depth self-analyzation right now...