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Study: people eat more when food is

Study: people eat more when food is close at hand and in sight and less when its farther away and out of sight.

Reader Comments
14 comments
Morgan says:

Study: Scientists continue to waste money on studies that reach obvious conclusions.

» by Morgan on Oct 20, 2005 at 03:37 PM
Jake of 8bitjoystick.com says:

Wasn't this publish in the Scientific jornal "Duh!" ?

» by Jake of 8bitjoystick.com on Oct 20, 2005 at 03:43 PM
chris says:

So they can't call us lazy AND fat. It's one or the other!

» by chris on Oct 20, 2005 at 04:08 PM
Amy says:

Related study: humans have no will power. Or very little, anyway.

Seriously, a bag of candy lasts about two hours in my house. A big bag.

» by Amy on Oct 20, 2005 at 04:29 PM
Dafyd says:

Yup - the bag of Minstrels I had in the cupboard lasted a fortnight there. I got it out last night, and now it's all gone...

Duh.

» by Dafyd on Oct 20, 2005 at 04:45 PM
Eric says:

I gotta admit... this was pretty obvious... But I think that other primal desires are similar too (food, pr0n, attention). Like Amy said, little to no will-power.

» by Eric on Oct 20, 2005 at 05:01 PM
kelly says:

Study: people spend more when money it is close at hand and in sight and less when its farther away and out of sight.

i'd buy it.

» by kelly on Oct 20, 2005 at 05:38 PM
kelly says:

it is? neat.

» by kelly on Oct 20, 2005 at 05:39 PM
barlow says:

This should have implications for architecture - so many houses make the kitchen the center of the social space. Basically we should put the booze at one end of the house and the kitchen at the other. We'll be jollier and thinner!

» by barlow on Oct 20, 2005 at 06:23 PM
Arthur says:

Obviously the question is that food was designed to be there and that it didn't come out of nothing or evolved out of apes.

Wait.

» by Arthur on Oct 20, 2005 at 09:04 PM
sps says:

This sort of thing does have use people. Unfortunately they chose to use candy, which makes it seem stupid. But it's easy to extrapolate this to the rest of eating habits. Combine this with the study Cornell did that basically verified the "freshman 15" and university cafeterias all over the place all of the sudden seem a little more ridiculous, especially when they charge an "all you can eat" price.

While it may seem common sense, sometimes it's necessary to document "common sense" things so that people and organizations can't argue lack of proof. And trust me, you'd be surprised how many people won't believe me when I tell them they can eat half of what they do and be fine.

» by sps on Oct 21, 2005 at 02:51 AM
Maaike says:

At first I also thought 'Duh, this is soooo obvious'... but then again: this is one of those things you might have known all along, but never really thought about. I agree with sps, it's good to bring these things into focus every now and again.

*moves bag of candies from desk into drawer*

» by Maaike on Oct 21, 2005 at 06:27 AM
Mark M. Smith says:

While I've known this personally for a long time (candy left on the coffee table gets eaten, candy I leave in my room or put in drawer is found a few years later) it's one thing to state that something is obvious, but quite another to try to prove it scientifically. For every study that validates a seemingly obvious concept there are plenty that disprove the "obvious" idea. Until you put something to the test, no matter how much it seems to be true, it's just hearsay.

» by Mark M. Smith on Oct 22, 2005 at 02:47 AM
a friend to candy says:

But what about candy that's down the back of the couch? Is it still good enough to give trick-or-treaters? or am I missing the point here?

» by a friend to candy on Oct 24, 2005 at 01:17 AM

 
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.

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This entry was published on October 20, 2005 at 02:59 pm.

Tags for this entry:  food  obesity  health 

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