Literature on Eating In the book Mindless Eating68, author Brian Wansink argues that there is a range of calories, that if we can control, can add up to huge health benefits over time. He coins it the “mindless margin,” a handful of a few hundred calories that we can easily overeat and that easily adds up to weight gains of 10-20 pounds over the year. He does propose that it is just as easy to adapt our environment to keep these calories in check. As the Director of the Food and Brand Lab, Wansink conducts studies to analyze factors like plate size, location of food, and food naming to learn about how our eating habits are dictated by our environment. He firmly believes that small changes in the environment will benefit our health. Instead of committing to a diet or making radical changes to behavior, it is possible to make a significant impact that does not deprive or cause any unnecessary mental anguish. He offers examples of how to best reengineer our food habits in a way that is natural and not disruptive to our daily lives. For example, he offers the simple idea of a checklist. This list would feature three 100-calorie changes that could mindlessly turn into positive eating habits. This could include daily tasks, such as “make half my plate vegetables” and “ drink only one sugared beverage,” that can be checked off each day. Wansink reminds the reader it is fine to not be perfect every day, but these small changes can add up to a couple lost pounds over the course of the month. Another example includes the simple act of eating off smaller plates. Wansink’s book, focused specifically on eating, provides us with many examples of how small changes in behavior can be made to create much larger impacts. Many of his tactics can be applied to the cafeteria space or used to encourage changes in individual APPENDIX
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