Place Yourself in a Better Food Environment to Form Better Dietary Habits
You can jokingly tell people that you are on a “diet diet” when you just eat whatever you see, but maybe there is something in it. The study confirms the advice that has been preached by health experts all along: the foods you eat and your eating behavior can be influenced by the types of foods you store in your immediate environment.
Okay, so it wasn’t a terrific life hack or anything like that, but the study mentioned was pretty interesting. In this preliminary two-part study published in the journal Health Education & Behavior , the researchers wanted to know about eating habits at home and how they correlate with BMI. They started with an online survey and collected data from 500 families about their kitchen space; including what foods were on their countertops, as well as their height and weight. Specifically, questions were asked about whether cookies, candy, packaged foods such as cereals, bowl of fruit, toaster or blender were present during the survey. The researchers then followed this first part of the study by physically visiting about 300 homes to see them in person.
They found that – drum roll please – those families that had healthier food options on their countertops, like fruit plates, weighed an average of 13 pounds less than those who didn’t. In addition, foods such as sugary cereals and soda that were left in plain sight were correlated with higher weight than those who did not leave these foods outdoors.
This study is now a tentative definition: the size of the household survey was small and conducted from the same community, and the 500-household survey was an online questionnaire based on self-reported data (including weight and height). This means the research is interesting to think about, but don’t take these findings as gospel – more research needs to be done here. If only life were an easy task to leave the plate of fruit and – voila – lower your BMI!
The study simply bolsters the existing discussion of surrounding yourself with healthier foods in order to set yourself up for a successful diet. Now you don’t have to throw everything away. The authors write:
The findings of this study do not focus on completely removing certain foods from the kitchen, but rather on rearranging foods to promote healthier choices, leaving kitchen treats (albeit hidden ones) for occasional indulgences. Specific recipes such as highlighting a buffet for healthy snacks and replacing cookies with a bowl of fruit can be easily accomplished.
Detailed guidance on reorganizing a pantry can be found in this article.
Slim By Design: A Kitchen Counter for the Correlates of Obesity | Health education and behavior