If you were to guess, how many food-related decisions would you say you make each day? If you’re the average person, you probably estimated that you make about 15 food/beverage related decisions every day. Guess what? You’re wayyyy off.

According to Behavioral Nutrition professor Brian Wansik and his research staff, people make more like 221 decisions regarding food each day. But the real issue is that many of these decisions are unconscious. According to Wansik, “we’re a nation of mindless eaters.” And it’s true. For the most part, the mind is to blame for overeating, not the stomach. The same 6-oz serving of pasta can be dished onto 2 separate plates, one large and one small, and look like entirely different portions. Chances are, you’ll feel fuller after eating the pasta off the smaller plate because it looked like more food. A 5-oz glass of juice in a tall skinny glass looks like a lot more than the same 5-oz poured into a short fat glass. Even the pros cant gauge portions accurately, that’s why bartenders still use jiggers to measure out the shots going into your rum and coke. If your lucky, they’ll just “eyeball” it. We like those bartenders a LOT (wink, wink).

It’s all a mind game, play carefully.