WE EAT WITH OUR EYES

 

Most people eat with their eyes.  We may use our hands to put food in our mouths but before we even get that far, our eyes have already decided how we will react to foods.  Consider how important this is to how much and/or what you eat and make some changes to trick what your eyes see.  First of all, go out of your way to make healthy foods look attractive!  Given a choice between something that "looks good" and something with not so much eye appeal, we will almost always choose what looks good.  It is just human nature to go with what appeals to our sight.  This is especially important to getting our kids to eat healthy.  To use a simple example, take cereal for instance.  Is a child going to pick the colorful sugar-coated cereal or a bowl of plain boring-looking cereal?  But if you add a few colorful berries or pieces of fresh fruit to the plain cereal, you may just win over that child to the plainer healthy cereal.

Another thing we can do, and I have mentioned on this blog before, is to become aware of the plates we are using.  There are two things about plates to consider.  First is to downsize your plates.  Buy some smaller dinner plates or serve the meal on salad plates.  Your eyes see a full plate of food when in reality you are eating much less.  Also remember this when purchasing plates.  No matter how pretty the highly decorated plates, steer clear of them.  When you put food on busy plates, the food becomes lost in the design, and you may "load up" more than intended.  Also use white or light-colored plates.  Again, you want the food to "stand out" against the plate so your eyes immediately see how much food is on your plate.

You will be surprised how these simple little steps can help you eat less food overall and more healthy foods than in the past.  These are simple little baby steps that can take you a long way to improving your diet without angst.  Make this new year a healthier one for you and your family.  It is in your power to do so!

What do your eyes see when they look at your plate?