Edible food “Stop Signs” may be just the thing to remind you to quite eating.
The visual reminder helps people to manage portion control and acts to snap you out of the compulsion to continue eating out of momentum.
And it actually works.
People consumed 250 less calories when the edible “stop signs” were used.
Such mindless habit-eating helps explain why some people go overboard while snacking. Other reasons, the study notes: people aren’t good at self-monitoring how much they eat, or they eat what they believe — incorrectly — is an appropriate portion.
“By inserting visual markers in a snack-food package, we may be helping them to monitor how much they are eating and interrupt their semi-automated eating habits,” lead researcher Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, said in a statement.
