Mindless Eating

Why We Eat More Than We Think

By: Brian Wansink Ph.D.

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

In this illuminating and groundbreaking new book, food psychologist Brian Wansink shows why you may not realize how much you’re eating, what you’re eating - or why you’re even eating at all.

• Does food with a brand name really taste better?
• Do you hate brussels sprouts because your mother did?
• Does the size of your plate determine how hungry you feel?
• How much would you eat if your soup bowl secretly refilled itself?
• What does your favorite comfort food really say about you?
• Why do you overeat so much at healthy restaurants?

Brian Wansink is a Stanford Ph.D. and the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab. He’s spent a lifetime studying what we don’t notice: the hidden cues that determine how much and why people eat. Using ingenious, fun, and sometimes downright fiendishly clever experiments like the “bottomless soup bowl,” Wansink takes us on a fascinating tour of the secret dynamics behind our dietary habits.

How does packaging influence how much we eat? Which movies make us eat faster? How does music or the color of the room influence how much we eat? How can we recognize the “hidden persuaders” used by restaurants and supermarkets to get us to mindlessly eat? What are the real reasons most diets are doomed to fail? And how can we use the “mindless margin” to lose - instead of gain - 10 to 20 pounds in the coming year?

Mindless Eating will change the way you look at food, and it will give you the facts you need to easily make smarter, healthier, more mindful and enjoyable choices at the dinner table, in the supermarket, in restaurants, at the office - even at a vending machine - wherever you decide to satisfy your appetite.

©2006 Brian Wansink (P)2006 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Entertaining...Isn't so much a diet book as a how-to on better facilitating the interaction between the feed-me messages of our stomachs and the controls in our heads." (Publishers Weekly)

“[Mindless Eating] does more than just chastise those of us guilty of stuffing our faces. It also examines the effectiveness of such popular diets as South Beach or Atkins, and offers useful tips to consciously eat nutritiously.” (Boston Herald)

Interesting, enlightening, practical advice

I enjoyed every minute of this book, and am on my third "reading". I have started eliminating the mindless eating from my diet, incorporated 4 new tactics, and find I enjoy my food (and drink) more and am increasingly aware of my hunger/satiety. A great book for those looking for lasting change. (Yes, I'm losing weight effortlessly). Love the descriptions of social experiments, and narrator's voice is easy on the ears.

Excellant Book

I found this book interesting, motivational, and an excellant source of new ideas.

Good book, glad to have this information

It's so interesting to know why we think the way we do about food. This book helps me to better understand those who tend to overeat, I can see things from their perspective now, where it was a bit hard before.

Makes You ReExamine Your Habits

I am working to drop extra pounds. It reiterates what i already know about diet, but with additional color. It moved me away from fad diets and into a healthier form of weight loss without feeling like I'm being cheated. Must read for anyone struggling with weight loss.

Losing weight doesn't have to be painful

What did you love best about Mindless Eating?

I loved the endless examples of research studies the author used to learn about eating patterns and habits. And trust me, I'm NO researcher. I learned volumes about my own eating patterns and why I so easily put on weight. Importantly, I've also learned how to take it off too. Just being aware of the tricks and traps has made me a more mindful eater.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the way the author described why and how they looked at the many aspects of eating. From the introduction right to the last word I was thoroughly mesmerized by the creativity and ingenuity of the author and his team of researchers.

Which character ??? as performed by Marc Cashman ??? was your favorite?

The narrator was amazing. He could probably read the phone book and make it interesting. Very easy on the ears.

Any additional comments?

I have recommended this book to 2 friends already. Additionally, I work in heath care and have used some of the lessons learned from the book in the clinic setting

Surprising research on eating habits

This book surprised me of all the things that cause us to overeat. Some of the reasons are so ridiculous that I wanted to smack myself - I mean they are THAT true. Delightful read, however its a bit dated as to the badgering of fats is so passe, nowadays, but that aside, you will learn a few things about yourself, and how to trick yourself out of mindless eating!

Fascinating material, well-illustrated

What made the experience of listening to Mindless Eating the most enjoyable?

Brian Wansink runs a food psychology laboratory. His research is often funded by food and agribusiness conglomerates, who use it to convince us to spend more money on their products. Arguably, this very research contributes to America's current obesity problem. Here, however, Wansink takes those very same findings and tells the reader how to use his lab's actually fairly neutral findings to help us control our own eating behavior as well as to recognize when these techniques are being used against us and then how mitigate their impact.The techniques are simple and, like most wisdom, feels like common sense on you're aware of it: Use smaller plates. Read nutritional labels. Pay attention to serving and portion size versus container size. Use tall glasses instead of short ones. Music and lighting influence behavior. What makes this book fascinating is that Wansink provides the facts and figures to back up his assertions. He describes the experiments in enough to detail to be convincing but is not at all academic. He also tells useful and often funny anecdotes about human behavior in the process. I learned useful things about how to control and change my own eating habits by spending time listening to this audiobook, and I was entertained in the process.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A - non-fiction

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The narrator was professional and clear. In tone, however, he was a bit too much like a game show host -- a bit too polished in the sense that sometimes I felt like I was being talked at, rather than to. But this was a minor issue in an otherwise excellent production.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I could have listened to this in just a few sittings, but I didn't. I listened while walking through Central Park, while on the subway, and while driving back and forth to work. It's fine this way; the individual chapters discuss different aspects of how to control one's eating, and taking time between each chapter to try out the techniques is probably more effective than listening to them all in one go.

Interesting book - somewhat repetitive

I liked the topic in the book and found the research that was presented to be interesting. My only complaint was toward the end of the book, you could guess with reasonable accuracy what the next study was going to show. Part of the book seemed repetitive.

This book has led me to change a few eating habits - but I don't think will cause a lifestyle revolution for me.

Resigned and his papers retracted

I think anyone considering purchase of a Wansink book should know that he has resigned his position at Cornell University under a cloud and had numerous papers retracted from JAMA and other medical journals. See the article in December 26 2018 Washington Post.

do not buy this!!!unless it becomes abridged.

What disappointed you about Mindless Eating?

This guy is a world authority.I fully respect him and his devotion to proven facts.However there was very little information I could use on a daily practical level that wasn't obvious.
The advice contained is pretty obvious:understand portion size;reduce size of your plate and glass,eat slowly,order your dessert after you have eaten,eat the junk stuff if you have worked out that day.Understand calories and how easy it is to get the wrong.
This could easily be summarised in to a 1 hour book that would make interesting.It was tedious to get through;I can not recommend this to anyone except someone who is a food psychologist who is marketing food products.