“Blaming this on guns is like the big problem with obesity is spoons.”

 

Spoons! How ridiculous. Of course the obesity issue is MUCH more complicated. It has to do with personal choice, large unlimited access to cheap fatty, salty and sugary food, and limited access to costly healthy food. It also has to do with how sedentary we, as a species, are now. Most jobs we have in the 21st century have us sitting at computers 8 hours a day. This was not the case 50 years ago. Even the “city” jobs were a lot of factory and other jobs where people were standing most of the day and moving around, burning calories. Because of this, we are encouraged to go out and exercise in our free time. This requires us to do so in the morning before work, during a break (which is my preferred time), or after work (which is no one’s favorite time since people want to go home to their families).

 

 

Much has been done to combat obesity in the United States. Many programs, nonprofits, for-profits, and bills have been tried. Some of these have worked, some not as much.  All this is tied to health care, of course, but that’s another issue.

 

There are many documentaries that talk about our source of food in the United States, like Food Inc.

http://www.takepart.com/foodinc

 

Some suggest that the issue is, in part, created over decades of companies making lots of money by selling us cheap, fatty, salty and sugary foods. Watch this interview with Jon Stewart, it’s fascinating.

 

But what about the spoon? Could utensils, spoons, forks and plates have anything to do with how much food we eat?

 

Here’s the funny thing. Yeah, yes it does. Don’t believe me? Watch this.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57591092/utensils-can-influence-food-taste-how-much-you-eat-study-finds/

 

In this article on Glamour.com,

http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2013/07/why-its-time-to-think-about-yo.html

 

they say that glass size, lighting, and packaging affect how much you eat or drink.  They go on and cite a study from Flavourjournal.com. Quote “the weight, color, size, and shape of cutlery affects the taste of food”.

http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/pdf/2044-7248-2-21.pdf

 

So we know that what we use to eat our food affect how we perceive it. How does that help us? 

Well, on the site Feelhappiness.com, http://feelhappiness.com/6-tricks-to-consume-fewer-calories-during-meals/

they actually recommend “By using smaller plates, bowls, and utensils, you can decrease the number of calories you consume during a meal.”

 

But they’re not the only one’s making this claim. They cite their sources.

In one study, a bowl of M&Ms was left out for people to take as they pleased, using either a large spoon or a small spoon. When the small spoon was used, far fewer M&Ms were consumed. This is because of “unit bias”, or our propensity to assume that a specific unit (spoon size)  is the “appropriate” amount.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/17/6/521.short

 

So, no, it would be incorrect to blame obesity on a spoon. However, human psychology DOES suggest that we can use the spoon in a better way to lose weight.

 

What does that say about guns? That perhaps the inanimate thing humans use to do a thing might actually have something to do with their actions? Hmm...

 

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