Too Many Choices Make Diet and Weight Control Harder

Scientists have discovered that too many choices and varieties of food on the dinner table might help make us fat.

Recently, a group of scientists made a strange, (and probably unexpected), discovery with some caged rats. I know that we aren't the same as rats, but I think these little creatures may have something to teach us.

The scientists wanted to know if the rats would regulate their own diets for optimum health, so they put three bowls in their cages - one filled with a carbohydrate like corn, another with a protein food, and a third with an oil or fat. The rats did just fine

Then the researchers added some choices to see what happened. Instead of one kind of carbohydrate, they now gave the rats two. They added another protein food, and another fat.

Within a few weeks, some of the rats had eaten themselves to death. They were compelled to eat some of everything on their plate, so to speak, and their internal appetite controls stopped working. Wild rats, of course, would never find themselves facing this problem of too much food, with too much variety. However, this unnatural laboratory experiment plays out on many human dinner tables, every single day.

Think of last year's Thanksgiving dinner. Did you have sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and dressing and dinner rolls and apple or pumpkin pie? If both turkey and ham were offered, did you have some of both? Did you have gravy on your potatoes, and butter on your rolls? Most of us did. In fact, scientists are discovering that it's extremely difficult for us to do anything else - like those rats, if we have lots of choices on the table, we at least taste everything that's available. And like those experimental rats, we get fat.

We've always believed that abundance and variety are good things, but that isn't always true, especially when we're trying to stay on a healthy diet. Here in the US we live in a country that is bursting with choices, especially for snacks and fattening food.

Fortunately, we don't have to be overcome by all this bounty. The supermarkets might be full of thousands of different varieties of foods, but our cupboards and freezers are under our control.

In order to succeed with your diet, the food in your cupboards should be a direct reflection of your resolution to eat a healthy, balanced diet - and that usually means that some of the stuff that's in there now needs to get thrown out, instead of eaten.

This is probably the most difficult part of a diet. We don't want to start a diet while there's still half of a chocolate cake on the counter, do we? "It's a shame to let it go to waste." But by throwing it out, along with all the other things in the cupboards that aren't on your new diet, you give yourself a fighting chance. If the urge to eat a fattening snack overcomes you when there aren't any fattening snacks in the house, it gives you time to let the urge pass you by.

You may also find yourself eating far less during each meal if you limit yourself to fewer choices. Serve one item that is mostly carbohydrates - such as pasta or bread, but not both. Serve one protein item, and only one item that is high in fat. This takes some ingenuity and creativity, but you can easily make up for any potential boredom by heaping on the raw and cooked veggies. You can have as many veggies as you want, in as much variety as you want, since most vegetables contain tons of nutrition but very few calories.

For between meal times, have only one type of snack on hand - grapes, perhaps, instead of crackers and grapes.

Will reducing the choices and varieties of foods help your family lose weight and feel healthier? It might be worth doing a bit of experimenting to find out.