Wansink new director

Brian Wansink, Director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell, is now Executive director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. He studies environmental factors that push Americans to overeat. "No one goes to bed skinny and wakes up fat," he says. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it sure is true!

What is the best way to mindlessly change behavior? Simply and metaphorically, we need to put the serving bowl back by the stove. Smaller plates. Taller, skinnier glasses. That's what we want to go for. Things they don't have to think about. It's not about educating people. Part of it relates to economics, I don't mean dollars and cents. I mean the economics of cognitive effort and the economics of physical effort. Here's an example. We eat a lot less of the Oreos that come in mini-packs of 2 or 3 because there's a little cognitive cost and a little physical cost to opening another little package. We have to pause and think. From a Wired interview

I've noticed that. If I leave a serving dish on the table, I'll dip in for another helping even if I'm not hungry. If I just left it on the stove, I wouldn't even think about it.