Try Cutting Up Instead of Out

Have you ever used the classic trick of eating off of a smaller dinner plate to help cut calories? New research, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that cutting food into smaller pieces, can also help you to cut back on calories.

Researchers founds that slicing cherry-shaped gummy candies (Happy Cherries, Haribo, Bonn, Germany) and sweet-sour red gummy ribbons (Flexi Fizz, Lamy Lutti, Manage, Belgium) in half caused people to eat less, therefore consuming fewer calories. In this study, 33 college students were asked to complete a task on a computer and were given 20 pieces of whole candy. Later these same students, while still distracted by a computer task, were given 20 candies cut in half. Interestingly, when the students ate the whole candies they ate about 6.9 pieces of candy; when the candy was cut in half and smaller, they ate an average of 6.2 pieces; a difference of about 60 calories.

Bottom Line: Eating while distracted can cause many of us to overeat, and by no means are the results of this study intended to encourage candy intake. However, cutting foods in half to cut calories, is good food for thought.

Source: Journal of the American Dietetic Association Volume 111, Issue 5, May 2011

Long Nights = Larger Pant Size?

Surely we've felt it, that mid-afternoon craving for high fat, high sugar foods following a really late night. It's not your imagination! Lack of sleep can lead to overeating to compensate for low energy levels.  

Research scientists at Northwestern University asked 52 female participants about their sleeping and eating habits. They found that about 56% of the participants were normal sleepers. The rest of the participants regularly went to bed later and got less sleep overall.

The researchers found that those who went to sleep later

- ate more calories after dinner

- ate more calories later at night (after 8pm)

- ate more fast food

- drank more high-calorie soft drinks and  

- had lower fruit and vegetable consumption.  

All of these poor habits meant that the participants who slept less, consumed about 248 more calories than those who slept normally.

The research showed that late sleepers tended to eat less in the morning, then increase calorie intake as the day went on. However, it is unclear if they ate more unhealthful foods at night because of preference, or because their choices were limited to fast food chains and convenience stores that are open later at night.

Bottom Line: Getting eight hours of sleep most nights of the week is not only good for your concentration, attitude and energy levels, but it can also help you regulate your food intake.

Source: Obesity (2011) doi:10.1038/oby.2011.100