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Sharon Frank
HLTH 1020
Research Paper
Date: July, 29, 2016
Nutrition Perspectives

The book I choose for this research paper is Mindless Eating. I think that it is an
amazing book. The book is enjoyable and filled with many interesting research to
support the authors point of view. It explores how our food choices in everyday life can
contribute to our increasing weight. In this book, Wansink made his points by taking us
on a fascinating tour of the secret dynamics and mystery behind our dietary habits. He is
helping us to discovering one reason after another how our food world drives us to eat.
We are human, human need foods, because food is the fuel that gives us energy.
We require energy to sustain our lives. Therefore we cant survive without eating food.
But are we mindful for what we put into our mouth furthermore put into our body? Or
are we have become a mindless eater? Through the whole book, Wansink used his
ingenious and fun approach to show us that how does packaging influence how much we
eat. He also pointed out that how the dcor of the room or the music influence how much
we eat. The part interested me the most is how he had point out how the advertisements
used by restaurants and supermarkets to get us to mindless eating. This book gives us a
new way to look at food, and supplies us the facts we need to make healthier food
choices. The chapters are full of clever experiments and insightful ideas. I think that

what Wansink wanted us to learn from this book is to be mindful of eating. His practical
approach shows us and teaches us that we can make a lot of small changes in our eating
habits everyday. He teaches us how doable to make more mindful and smarter choices of
eating.
The reason for me to choose this book is my desire to know more about healthy
eating. After few years working at Acute Cardiovascular Unit in Intermountain Medical
Center (IMC), I have notice the increasing number of patients who are suffering from
heart diseases, kidney disease and diabetes. Many of those patients who also facing the
weight challenges. The weight is in the un-healthy range from overweight to obsess.
Research suggests that American people become diabetic and overweight because of over
consumption of food. There is more than one-third of adults are considered to be obese,
more than one in twenty have extreme obesity (Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, 2015). There are 29.1 million people in the United States who have diabetes.
In adults twenty years and older group there is more than one in every ten people suffers
from diabetes. In general, a child has a one in ten chance of developing diabetes if one of
the parents is diagnosed (Ogden, 2012). So many researches supply us alarming data
without give us the ways to overcome the weight challenges. After researching through
many books and websites, I am so glade that I have found some answers in this book.
Wansink explains why we eat more than we think or intend to. He also share many great
ideas of how we can all make many little changes or new eating habits one day at a time.
Therefore make big difference in our health.
The book Mindless Eating is written by Brian Wansink (Ph.D., Standford,
1990). He is the Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab of Department of

Marketing and Nutritional Science at Cornell University. Prior to Cornell, he was a

professor at Dartmouth College, the Vriji Universiteit (The Netherlands), the Wharton
School at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign,
INSEAD (France), and a visiting scientist at the Natick Army Research lab. He is a
Fulbright Senior Specialist in food marketing and nutrition. He is a successful author of
three professional books on food and consumer behavior. He lives with his family in
Ithaca, New York, where he enjoys both French food and French fries on weekly basis.
This book was written and published in Octorber, 2006. I think the themes in this
book are still applicable today. Actually I think the themes are even more applicable
today than in 2006. There are more Americans suffering from overweight and obese in
2016. There are more chronic diseases and disorders related to unhealthy weight.
The first topic I would like to compare to our textbook is Nutritional Gatekeepers vs. A Food Philosophy That Works. Wansink thinks that a nutritional gatekeeper are the main force to help their families eat healthier. They help the family eating
healthy largely through the wide variety of food they served. A varied menu makes
eating more pleasurable and can lead family members to expand their tastes beyond the
standard fatty, salty, sweet foods for which we have a natural hankering (Wansink, 167).
It echoes the message in our textbook: Variety in your diet means choosing a number of
different foods within any given food group rather than eating the same old thing day
after day. Variety makes meals more interesting and helps ensure that a diet contains
sufficient nutrients. A variety of foods is best because no one food meets all your nutrient
needs (Mardlaw, 36-37).

The second topic is Comfort Foods and Comfort Moods vs. Does Appetite
Affect What We Eat. Wansink thinks that people more likely to seek out comfort foods
when they were happy (86 percent) or when they wanted to celebrate or reward
themselves (37 percent), bored (52 percent), or lonely (39 percent). Happy mood =
comfort food. Moods, however, do seem to influence what we choose to eat (Wansink,
142-143). In agreement of this in our textbook: We might eat because it is the right time
of day, we are celebrating, or we are seeking emotional comfort to overcome the blues
(Wardlaw, 21).
The third topic is The mindless Margin vs. Over-nutrition. Wansink thinks
that no one goes to bed skinny and wakes up fat. Most people gain weight so gradually
they cant really figure out how it happened. The different between 1,900 calories and
2,000 calories is one we cannot detect in a day. But over the course of a year, this
mindless margin would either cause us to lose ten pounds or to gain ten pounds
(Wansink, 30). In our textbook says: Prolonged consumption of more nutrients than the
body needs can lead to over-nutrition.
There is so much I learned about nutrition from completing this assignment. It
started with learning about the class and source of nutrients of a healthy diet. Then
learning about the energy nutrient to energy balance. To know that if we can recognize
the danger of mindless eating then we can be more mindful when we eat and what we eat.
I learned that everything we eat and drink does matter. By learning the contemporary
nutrition has gives me a helpful guild line to make healthier diet choices, and help me to
build a healthier life style.

Work Cited

Ogden, Cynthis, Ph. D. & Fryar, Cheryl, M.S.P.H. (October, 2012)

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
http:/www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/tatabriefs/db50.htm
Wansink, Brian, Ph. D. (October, 2006) Mindless Eating
New York, NY: Bantam Book. Print.
Wardlaw, Gordon M. & Smith, Anne M. Second Edition (2012)
Contemporary Nutrition: A Functional Approach
United States of America: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.