These are the simple eating habits to incorporate at the dinner table, that will reduce the amount of food you eat or, that will make you eat the right food.
1. Diuretics
Diuretics are foods containing water to increase the water content in your belly. This has the effect of making food stay for longer in the belly, making you feel full for longer, hence you eat less.
Try getting diuretics into your meals. They can be part of the main meal itself or can be eaten separately after the course. Lemons and cucumbers are good examples of diuretics.
2. Reduce plate size
This has to do with your psychology. Research has shown that people who eat using a smaller plate, reduce their general food intake significantly.
Those who finished eating food from a small plate reported being just as full, as those who finished eating food from a big plate. In fact, those who ate from a big plate, but did not finish the food, still reported being hungrier, than those who finished eating all their food from a small plate, even though the portion on the bigger plate was more, than the entire portion on the small plate.
3. Use red plates
Again there is research to back this up. Red to our brain means stop, so you end up eating less, than you would have done using another plate, especially a white one.
4. Leave over
With any major meal that you eat, do not always finish the plate. Leave some portions behind. This will anger environmentalist and some other people, who will say you are wasting food, but for your own health and weight, you will have to do it.
5. Eat fiber
Just as with diuretics, fibrous foods also help to make your belly feel full for longer, so that you do not eat much soon after. Vegetables, fruits are all examples of fibrous foods, that can be eaten before a major meal to lessen your hunger, so that you do not finish the food, or after a meal so that you do not eat quickly afterwards.
Image courtesy of: orchidrecoverycenter.com.
