Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Wansink, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, the mind makes food-related decisions, more than 200 a day, and many of them without pause for actual thought. This peppy, somewhat pop-psych book argues that we don't have to change what we eat as much as how, and that by making more mindful food-related decisions we can start to eat and live better. The author's approach isn't so much a diet book as a how-to on better facilitating the interaction between the feed-me messages of our stomachs and the controls in our heads. In their particulars, the research summaries are entertaining, like an experiment that measured how people ate when their plates were literally "bottomless," but the cumulative message and even the approach feels familiar and not especially fresh. Wansink examines popular diets like the South Beach and Atkins regimes, and offers a number of his own strategies to help focus on what you eat: at a dinner party, "try to be the last person to start eating." Whether readers take time to weigh their decisions and their fruits and vegetables remains to be seen. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Anyone who's tried to follow a strict eating regimen knows how futile it sometimes seems. Nutritional science and marketing professor Wansink explores some of the psychological aspects of overeating to explain why we in fact consume more than we believe we do. He advocates weight-loss diets that cut calories by cutting overall consumption, instead of draconian elimination of intake. Wansink finds the greatest value in retraining one's mind and its perceptions by devices such as making sure one's plate contains at least half vegetables or salad. He suggests that a dieter will automatically eat less in social situations by being the last to start eating and the first to finish. He assesses the dangers of food shopping in bulk-portion stores, where customers are virtually begged to overconsume. Wansink's dual approach emphasizing food knowledge and self-knowledge offers a sensible route to permanent weight loss. A useful appendix arranges different popular diets in tables along with their advantages and disadvantages. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553804340
• ISBN-13: 978-0553804348
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,465 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lose Weight Without a Diet Using Simple and Practical Advice!, October 20, 2006

By	D. Buxman "A Seeker of Truth" (Pueblo, CO United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Dr. Wansink is a food psychologist who specializes in the investigation of the mental and emotional factors that cause us to eat. This book demonstrates that we can lose weight, simply by being more mindful of our eating habits. It contains interesting and humorous case studies that highlight those mindless activities that add 200 or 300 calories to our diet each day and which can add up to 20 or 30 excess pounds in the course of a year.
The author provides practical suggestions at the end of each chapter that will help you to make the simple changes that will allow you to lose 2 or 3 pounds per month without resorting to conventional diet techniques that are doomed to failure. Although this book is based upon scientific research and extensively end-noted, it is enjoyable to read, easy to understand and quite funny at times.
This book is a great value for the money and the five or six hours that it will take to read it.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not preachy but really interesting in so many ways...., October 22, 2006

By	MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

What really caught my attention was the fact the author shows over and over how 'we' so often eat, even if the stuff we are eating is stale popcorn or food that on second thought we wouldn't even feed to a stray starving dog. That food for 'us' is often more emotional than nutritional or helpful. After reading the book I find myself stopping before I reach for something to eat, asking myself if I am actually hungry and if so, if what I am about to eat is worth my time. I even find that I am planning meals better, so I get as much bang from them as possible. I also found the authors research on what men and women see as comfort foods, interesting. Guess I am more male minded since I also like soup. This is a book one will probably pick up and re read and glean new information from. Not preachy at all, but full of wise information and fun to boot.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am buying twenty copies!, October 21, 2006

By	R. Westgren "Foodie Abroad" (Qingdao, China) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am distributing Mindless Eating as a gift to colleagues, relatives and Baby Boomer friends. Not many books come along with such broad appeal. Briank Wansink relates dozens of experiments in food consumption behavior. Each is (apparently) simple, but when they are all woven together the complex fabric of our behaviors emerges: why we overeat without intending to. Wansink doesn't scold us, but instead shows how we might turn our new understanding into mindful eating. The book is written with wit, humor, and pop culture references that make reading a pleasure. But never is the reader left to wonder if there is science behind the story and the lifestyle advice.