story.news.yahoo.comnewsOpen ↗
That's why I will NOT buy this new item. Funny, just this morning (when it was MINUS 14F) I was
discussing the info on the above link and that certain things, including Skinny Cows, limited
portions and that was why they were "good!" A TUB will make me a TUB!!!!
But for this who want instant info rather than a link (sorry for length and copyright)
Food Portions
Sat Jan 3, 3:07 PM ET
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - With self-refilling bowls of soup and jumbo buckets of stale popcorn, professor
Brian Wansink has identified one culprit for U.S. obesity: excessive food portions.
The University of Illinois researcher has set up several food experiments that show the more
people are given, the more they will eat — regardless of whether they are full or think the food
tastes good.
"In the obesity war, portion size is the first casualty," said Wansink, who founded the University
of Illinois' Food & Brand Lab. "It's easy to point at, and we don't have to take responsibility
because we can blame the restaurant or the packaged food manufacturer."
Wansink and other researchers hope the results can help the federal government devise more user-
friendly nutrition labels for packaged foods. For example, instead of stating that a handful of
granola has 200 calories, the label instead could say the consumer would have to walk 2 miles to
burn it off.
His experiments — which have included tomato soup, popcorn and potato chips — target the visual
clues people use to tell them it's time to stop eating.
In the soup experiment, participants come to the lab expecting a taste test. Some bowls are rigged
with hidden tubes that keep them full, while others are not.
Over two years of the experiment, students with bottomless bowls tended to eat 40 percent more than
test subjects with regular bowls.
"I wasn't aware of it," said Nina Huesgen, one of the students who got a trick bowl in a recent
experiment. "That's why I feel so filled up, I guess."
James Painter, chairman of Eastern Illinois University's Family and Consumer Sciences Department,
who collaborated with Wansink on the experiment, said one student drank almost a quart of soup.
"I said, 'What were you doing?' And he said, 'I was trying to reach the bottom of the bowl,'"
Painter said.
Another telling experiment came outside Philadelphia, where Wansink offered free popcorn to
moviegoers at a $1 movie theater. Half the audience was given fresh popcorn, either in small
containers or in jumbo buckets; half received 14-day-old popcorn in small and jumbo containers.
Even though 82 percent of the people with the old popcorn reported it tasted terrible, those with
the jumbo buckets ate 33 percent more than those with the smaller container.
Wansink has come up with ways the food industry could help, such as offering visual clues to what an
adequate portion should be.
An experiment with Lay's Stax potato chips gave one group regular chips, a second group chips in
which every seventh chip was red, and a third group chips in which every 14th chip was red.
The groups weren't told the reason for the red chips but still used them to determine how much to
eat, Wansink said. The participants who ate the least had the potato chips in which every seventh
chip was red, followed by the group in which every 14th chip was red.
Such research has produced commonsense tips for the weight-conscious.
For example, people who drank out of short, fat glasses consumed considerably more than those who
used tall, skinny glasses, even though the glasses held the same amount.
"The tendency we have is to focus on heights instead of widths," Wansink wrote in a report on the
study. "That's why, for instance, people say, 'Boy, is the St. Louis Arch high.' But they never say,
'Boy, is it wide,' even though the dimensions are identical."
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Joyce said:I'm sure you all are just holding your breath on this one - like we need another new item to
tempt us. <G>
When at the store the other day I noticed a display of new skinny cow items ... scoopable icecream
in quart sized tubs! My local store had vanilla, mint chocolate chip, strawberry cheesecake and
maybe another variety that is not coming to my mind at the moment. I picked up a vanilla, is really
a nice switch from the sandwiches and bars. As much as I like the no fat/no sugar added icecreams,
the skinny cow stuff is definitely better!
Joyce
