Media: Stating the Obvious
January 02, 2004
Give this Guy a Medal!
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - With self-refilling bowls of soup and jumbo buckets of stale popcorn, professor Brian Wansink has identified one culprit for U.S. obesity: excessive food portions.
In an article entitled "Researcher Links Obesity, Food Portions," this brilliant new discovery (and others) are set forth for our perusal and education.
In the soup experiment, participants come to the lab expecting a taste test. Some bowls are rigged with hidden tubes that keep them full, while others are not.
Over two years of the experiment, students with bottomless bowls tended to eat 40 percent more than test subjects with regular bowls.
Wow - amazing! This guy ought to move to Detroit for further studies of the obese creature. Actually, anybody who wants to look thinner compared to the population might want to consider moving to Detroit.
But back on topic:
Wansink and other researchers hope the results can help the federal government devise more user-friendly nutrition labels for packaged foods. For example, instead of stating that a handful of granola has 200 calories, the label instead could say the consumer would have to walk 2 miles to burn it off.
Uh, Dr. or Mr. Wansink, please retrieve your brain from the water closet. I mean, really. Might I remind you that humans require energy from food? And while I agree measuring food portions to the gram does point toward the absurd, just...just...just STOP!
There's more.
An experiment with Lay's Stax potato chips gave one group regular chips, a second group chips in which every seventh chip was red, and a third group chips in which every 14th chip was red.
The groups weren't told the reason for the red chips but still used them to determine how much to eat, Wansink said. The participants who ate the least had the potato chips in which every seventh chip was red, followed by the group in which every 14th chip was red.
Sesame Street for portion control. Everybody count to 14!
hln
September 30, 2003
Wow, If You Flush Your Fish, It Won't Be Freed
Stories like these are why I wear my "Question Society" shirt at least once every two weeks. I've probably already used that line in a post, but it's so, so true.
As the American summer blockbuster "Finding Nemo" surfaces on European movie screens, conservationists are beseeching fish hobbyists: Don't flush!
Inspired by the adventures of the animated clownfish character — including his unlikely escape down a dentist's spit sink — conservationists say hundreds of children have flushed their pet fish down the toilet, hoping to free them.
The United Nations (news - web sites) Environment Programme and its partners want to discourage the innocent practice, while using the film's Friday opening in the United Kingdom to highlight a new report that tallies exotic fish losses and habitat damage caused by the growing pet trade.
"Parents who already have aquariums need to explain to their children that the fish will not survive if they are flushed," says Paul Holthus, president of the Marine Aquarium Council, a nonprofit conservation group based in Hawaii.
Thankfully, though, this one is British. British media - GIVE YOUR PEOPLE SOME CREDIT.
Thank you.
hln
Give this Guy a Medal!
-
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - With self-refilling bowls of soup and jumbo buckets of stale popcorn, professor Brian Wansink has identified one culprit for U.S. obesity: excessive food portions.
-
In the soup experiment, participants come to the lab expecting a taste test. Some bowls are rigged with hidden tubes that keep them full, while others are not.
Over two years of the experiment, students with bottomless bowls tended to eat 40 percent more than test subjects with regular bowls.
But back on topic:
-
Wansink and other researchers hope the results can help the federal government devise more user-friendly nutrition labels for packaged foods. For example, instead of stating that a handful of granola has 200 calories, the label instead could say the consumer would have to walk 2 miles to burn it off.
There's more.
-
An experiment with Lay's Stax potato chips gave one group regular chips, a second group chips in which every seventh chip was red, and a third group chips in which every 14th chip was red.
The groups weren't told the reason for the red chips but still used them to determine how much to eat, Wansink said. The participants who ate the least had the potato chips in which every seventh chip was red, followed by the group in which every 14th chip was red.
hln
Wow, If You Flush Your Fish, It Won't Be Freed
Stories like these are why I wear my "Question Society" shirt at least once every two weeks. I've probably already used that line in a post, but it's so, so true.
-
As the American summer blockbuster "Finding Nemo" surfaces on European movie screens, conservationists are beseeching fish hobbyists: Don't flush!
Inspired by the adventures of the animated clownfish character — including his unlikely escape down a dentist's spit sink — conservationists say hundreds of children have flushed their pet fish down the toilet, hoping to free them.
The United Nations (news - web sites) Environment Programme and its partners want to discourage the innocent practice, while using the film's Friday opening in the United Kingdom to highlight a new report that tallies exotic fish losses and habitat damage caused by the growing pet trade.
"Parents who already have aquariums need to explain to their children that the fish will not survive if they are flushed," says Paul Holthus, president of the Marine Aquarium Council, a nonprofit conservation group based in Hawaii.
Thank you.
hln
