What’s on Your Kitchen Counter?
The foods present on your kitchen counter may have a decisive impact on what you weigh! That was the eye-opening upshot from an intriguing new study lead by the Cornell’s famed eating behavior scientist, Dr. Brian Wansink. For this study, Dr. Wansink and his colleagues photographed 210 Syracuse, New York kitchens and then compared the foods present on the study homes’ kitchen counters with the body weights of the adult females living in the homes. The results were telling. Woman who had sugary drinks, high calorie snacks and even boxes of cereal on their counters weighed much more than those whose counters featured healthier options, such as fruit. How much? For those with soda on their counters 24 to 26 lbs. more and for those with
breakfast cereals on their counters 20 lbs. more. Fresh fruit however seemed to have the opposite influence. Women whose counters were adorned by fresh, whole fruit were more likely to have a normal body weight and weighed on average 10 lbs. less than those whose counters were not graced by this “real” food. (
Health Education and Behavior, October 2015 DOI:
10.1177/1090198115610571)
Although this type of study cannot prove cause and effect, it makes perfect sense. We already know for a fact that the more visible and
convenient a food is, the more likely we are to eat it. Bottom line– keep healthy, slimming foods visible and easy to reach and high risk, fattening foods totally out of sight!
The foods present on your kitchen counter may have a decisive impact on what you weigh! That was the eye-opening upshot from an intriguing new study lead by the Cornell’s famed eating behavior scientist, Dr. Brian Wansink. For this study, Dr. Wansink and his colleagues photographed 210 Syracuse, New York kitchens and then compared the foods present on the study homes’ kitchen counters with the body weights of the adult females living in the homes. The results were telling. Woman who had sugary drinks, high calorie snacks and even boxes of cereal on their counters weighed much more than those whose counters featured healthier options, such as fruit. How much? For those with soda on their counters 24 to 26 lbs. more and for those with breakfast cereals on their counters 20 lbs. more. Fresh fruit however seemed to have the opposite influence. Women whose counters were adorned by fresh, whole fruit were more likely to have a normal body weight and weighed on average 10 lbs. less than those whose counters were not graced by this “real” food. (Health Education and Behavior, October 2015 DOI:10.1177/1090198115610571)
