Psychologists proved, the most of us eat according to external signals, especially the visual ones. The bigger the portion of food, so much more we will eat; the bigger the plate, so much more we pour soup, the more we buy if the wending machine is nicely arranged and the more we will eat, if the bowl with M&M’s is closer to us.

All of this makes us easy targets for the alimentary producers and advertiser that want just to sell us more and more food. Like many others branches of our modern life, the food industry, has become a visual culture. But for the eating process, it’s better to till also our other senses, which often provide more useful and accurate information that are useful for our own body.

Is the third bite of dessert better than the first?

Could I continue to eat? But am I still hungry?

It seems that the human brain needs 20 minutes to get the information that the stomach is full; unfortunately the most of us eat in less than this 20 minutes, as result the feeling of satiety is influencing in a little way or not at all, the quantity which is consumed.

This means that by eating more slowly and being more careful for the satiety sensation, we could learn to eat less. French’s know this better than us, Brian Wansink proved it. When asked when to stop eating, the French subjects answered “when I feel full” (what a brilliant idea! Americans answered “when there’s nothing else on the plate” or “when I’m fed up”)

Maybe that’s why the long and relaxed meals allow French’s to know when they are sated. When we will learn to eat slower and will pay attention to our senses, than we could change the external signs that guide us. The idea is that it’s better to self-manipulation than traders-manipulation.

You will find a lot of tips in the recent work of Wansink, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, but I prevent you that all will hurt your quality of free will. Eat little portions, in little plates, eat and drink from small recipients (even if it means to reassign the products from gigantic packages into little containers); leave your food rests on the table- empty bottles, bones and so on-  so that you can see how much you eat. Use tall glasses instead of the wide ones; leave the healthy food at sight and hide the unhealthy ones; leave the food containers from where you served in the kitchen so that you are not tempted for a second round