How to health-hack the holidays for health. The holidays are a time to let loose. You
return to the comfort of your family home, put on a big pair of pants, and eat until
those pants get tight. But studies show that Americans gain a pound on average over the
holidays. That may not sound like much, except they don't lose it the next year, which means
that over a lifetime, all those holiday indulgences really add up. Now, thanks to modern behavioral
scientist Brian Wansink, you can use these tips and tricks to eat less without even trying.
Step 1. Avoid serving dinner family style at all costs. Wansink found that people who
served from their stove or counter ate 19% less food to those serving themselves right
off the table. If you must eat family style, he suggests keeping lids and covers on bowls
to make getting seconds and thirds a little more difficult. Step 2. Trick yourself into
choosing healthy options. Did you know you're three times more likely to eat the first food
you see than the 5th one, according to Wansink? So put salads and vegetables first. Step 3.
Destroy all evil, short, fat glasses and replace them with tall, slender glasses. Look at these
two glasses. We tend to pour about 32% more into the one on the left than the one on the
right, even though both glasses hold the same amount of liquid. This could help stop you
from pouring on those pounds. Step 4. Carefully coordinate plates to be the opposite color
of your food. In one study, Wansink gave students either a red or a white plate and allowed
them to serve themselves either red marinara pasta or white alfredo pasta. The students
who put white pasta on a white plate, or a red pasta on a red plate ate 18% more than
those with opposite color plates or foods. Step five. Excise the evil large plates from
your house and replace them with tiny plates. It turns out that life is just a game of perspectives.
So a 3oz portion of turkey will look big on a 10 inch plate, but relatively small on a
12 inch plate. And finally, Step 6. Wrap your unhealthy leftovers in aluminum foil and healthy
leftovers in plastic and glass. Wansink found that food obscured by aluminum foil is hard
to see and less likely to get eaten. Happy Holidays, and happy health-hacking.