Context matters.

You ate more because you were hungry? Maybe, but you’re probably not giving nearly enough credit to how context affects you. I’ve posted many times about how context is far more influential than you think.

From Paul Bloom’s How Pleasure Works:

1. Protein bars taste worse if they are described as “soy protein”
2. Orange juice tastes better if it is bright orange.
3. Yogurt and ice cream are more flavorful if described as “full fat” or “high fat.”
4. Children think milk and apples taste better if they’re taken out from McDonald’s bags.
5. Coke is rated higher when drunk from a cup with a brand logo.

How much you eat is strongly affected by how much those around you eat, but you rarely realize it. Dining with friends? You’ll probably eat twice as much.

Use context to control your eating:

Health-wise, a little starvation can be good for you, actually.

So what can you do?

Use this info to help you:

1. If you need to concentrate or something is going to require good judgment, make sure to eat something.
2. Use your knowledge of the way certain foods make you feel to control and improve your mood.
3. Use context to control your eating.

You probably utilize the first two points from time to time but maybe not often enough. The third is very powerful but you probably don’t put it into action.

From Mindless Eating author Brian Wansink:

The good news is that for every external cue that messes people up in our studies, you can solve the problem by doing the opposite. If going from a 10-inch to a 12-inch plate causes you to eat 22 percent more, use a 10-inch or 91/2-inch plate.

Use smaller bowls. Don’t rely on your willpower or the power of education. Don’t say, “Now I know that I’m three times more likely to eat the first thing I see in my cupboard than the fifth thing I see in my cupboard … but I won’t let that influence me.” It absolutely will!

People eat food that’s on the table much more frequently than food that’s off the table, so just put the salad and vegetables on the table. Leave everything else on the counter or stove.