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Messy Kitchens Could Make You Overeat, Says New Study

posted by Admin User at 2016-03-09 10:57:00


Growing up, we've all had our mothers pester us about keeping our rooms neat and tidy. Turns out, an uncluttered environment does in fact have a negative effect on your behavior. Particularly on your snacking behavior.

A <a href="http://eab.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/01/28/0013916516628178.abstract" target="_blank">newly study published</a> in the journal Environment and Behavior has found that a person's mind-set in stressful and chaotic food environments influences their ability in making unhealthy food choices. The research had one hundred one female undergraduate students participate in either one of two kinds of kitchen conditions. One was clean and tidy, the other utterly chaotic. 

"The notion that places — such as cluttered offices or disorganized homes — can be modified to help us control our food intake is becoming an important solution in helping us become more slim by design," said Brian Wansink of Cornell University and his co-authors of the study. "It's important to know whether a food environment can actually cause you to, unknowingly, overeat," said <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/15/466567647/a-cluttered-kitchen-can-nudge-us-to-overeat-study-finds" target="_blank">Wansink to NPR</a>. 

Participants were given cookies, crackers, and carrots in the experiment to taste and rate. They were also told to write about a time when they felt in-control or out-of-control. 

The study found: "Participants in the chaotic-kitchen condition and the out-of-control mind-set condition consumed more cookies (103 kcal) than did participants who were in the in-control mind-set condition (38 kcal)."" Women who felt out-of-control in messy kitchens ate more than twice as many calories as women who were in-control. 

Interestingly, the experiment observed no impact of a chaotic environment on the consumption of crackers or carrots. The paper concluded that although a vulnerability is created by messy surroundings, it is ultimately an individual's mindset that triggers or blocks that vulnerability.

The take away here is to see how far mindfulness can help in your weight loss surgery journey- get organized, clean up the kitchen, get rid of unnecessary kitchen equipment (exactly how many gadgets do you need to peel garlic?), and lastly keep the tempting foods "out of house, out of mouth."
 
posted at: 2016-03-09 10:57:00, last updated: 2016-03-09 10:57:53
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