Mindless Eating

Why We Eat More Than We Think

By: Brian Wansink Ph.D.

Narrated by: Brian Wansink Ph.D.

Length: 5 hrs and 32 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, and even at a vending machine -- wherever you decide to satisfy your appetite.

©2006 Brian Wansink (P)2006 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Wansink's dual approach emphasizing food knowledge and self-knowledge offers a sensible route to permanent weight loss." (Booklist)

Highly recommended - changed my life

Not a diet, just plainly stated facts of scientific studies on why we over eat and how to lose weight without depriving yourself.

Entertaining and educational. I listen every couple months to remember how I lost the paunch.

I have steadily been losing 1 to 1-1/2 pounds per week. Too slow? 30 pounds in 5 months says it isn't.

If it doesn't work for you, you weren't listening.

Fascinating Listen

I thoroughly enjoyed "Mindless Eating". Unlike some other reviewers, I appreciated hearing the author's description of the processes, methods and motivations behind his research in addition to his very interesting findings. This is not a "diet book" per se (or I wouldn't have bought it): I liked it as an interesting window into culture and human nature with respect to something as basic as eating. The author's enthusiasm for his topic is apparent in his delivery, which I found most engaging. Highly recommended.

Some practical gems in here

I question the assertion that all the recommendations in this book are 'mindless' steps you can take to reduce calories without feeling deprived. For example, he recommends snacking on pre-cut veggies instead of cookies. No kidding! Wish I'd thought of that! Also I found it quite repetitive at times. However there are some mind-blowing studies that are very entertaining to hear about, and several interesting new practical tidbits on how to approach food without cutting out whole categories of food. I would suggest maybe getting the hard copy so you can skim it more easily.

Insightful real world studies and simple changes

Would you listen to Mindless Eating again? Why?

Yes, I really enjoyed listening to the stories of how our minds dictate what we eat more than our stomachs. Also the reader is much more enjoyable on this version then the un-abridged

changed my bad eating habits

It's great to listen to the author himself. He reads his own words, great experience for readers