Two weeks ago I talked about drinking your water. Can’t believe it’s been two weeks already. I will try to give a simple tip each week.

This weeks tip is plate size. Did you know not only with all the crap the food industry puts in our food that our plate sizes have also increased. The average plate size 50 years ago was 9 inches. Today it is 12 inches. What do we do with those 3 extra inches? We fill them up so each meal we add 100-150 calories. Which leads to overweight children and adults. The average adult is now 26 lbs heavier than in the 1960’s.

Have you ever heard someone say my eyes were bigger than my stomach? Unfortunately the more we eat, the bigger our appetites get. Look at the plates below, which one do you think has more food on it?

The 8.5 inch plate correct? They all have the same amount of food. You can trick your brain into thinking you are full by seeing a full plate, on a smaller plate.

Use smaller plates and you will automatically eat fewer calories even though your brain will think you are eating more. Your stomach may grumble for the first few days but with the less you eat, you will reset your appetite  so you won’t feel as hungry and that grumbling will go away.

Interestingly enough, plate color also matters.  If your goal is to eat less, select plates that have high contrast with what you plan to serve for dinner. Want to eat more greens? Try serving them on a green plate! The color blue is actually an appetite suppressant. Use blue plates and eat less. Yellow plates tend to increase appetites.  If replacing dinnerware is difficult, remember that tablecloths are important, too. By selecting a cloth with a low-contrast to the dinnerware, you can minimize the effect of the Delboeuf illusion and lower the likelihood of over-serving.

The food industry is now using the same tricks the tobacco industry used 40-50 years ago. See your homework below.

Sorry got off schedule a little, it is really disappointing how the leaders of our country and companies (some) have chosen money over people.

Notice I haven’t even talked exercise yet.  Baby steps.  Drink water instead of sugary drinks. Use smaller plates which you will eat smaller portions.

Until our voices are heard and we change the food industry the best thing to do is eat as fresh and organic as you can. Buy locally if you can.

Stay tuned to next weeks tip.  God bless.

Homework : watch That Sugar Film if you can and read these articles on sugar. I found it interesting that in the film how they talked about if you took out all the foods in the entire grocery store that only 20% of the store would be left. Then in this article I received a few days later it talks about how 80% of the food we eat has high fructose corn syrup.  Direct correlation. I read that when our grandparents had dessert that that was almost all the sugar they ate in a day. Today, because of all the sugar in our foods, we consume the equivalent of two desserts with each meal. Think about that! We can also eat less sugar by eating less food – smaller plates.

The first article is from NewsMax Health http://nws.mx/1O2Q3LD.

The second article : http://drpescatore.com/sugars-death-toll-keeps-on-rising

The third article : http://www.reportingonhealth.org/2015/05/15/your-brain-sugar

The fourth article : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/06/sugar-brain-mental-health_n_6904778.html

There are many more but what it all comes down to is we need to eat less sugar.

To Lose Weight, Opt for a Small Plate –