Mindful eating? Move the fruit bowl closer

The author of "Mindless Eating: Why we eat more than we think" has been tabbed for the USDA role to oversee development of the 2010 dietary guidelines. Here is the release from the USDA:

DR. BRIAN WANSINK NAMED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE USDA CENTER FOR NUTRITION POLICY AND PROMOTION
Washington, Nov. 19, 2007 -- Agriculture Under Secretary Nancy Johner for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services today announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Wansink as the Executive Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP). Dr. Wansink currently serves as the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
"Dr. Wansink is nationally recognized in his field of nutrition research which focuses on how to encourage consumers to eat more nutritiously and better control how much they eat," said Johner. "Dr. Wansink's work has been featured in national print and broadcast media. We feel quite fortunate in having Dr. Wansink join our team here at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and look forward to working with him."
At CNPP Dr. Wansink will be responsible for overseeing the planning, development and review of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the food pyramid known as MyPyramid.gov and programs including the Healthy Eating Index, the USDA Food Plans, the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the cost of raising a child.
"I appreciate the opportunity to serve the President and the Secretary in this capacity," Wansink said. "The Center is involved in many crucial projects that have an immense potential to help the American public particularly in combating overweight and obesity. I look forward to leading these endeavors to the best of my abilities."
Dr. Wansink brings with him over 25 years of experience in nutritional science, food psychology, consumer behavior, food marketing, and grocery shopping behavior. His award-winning academic research on food has been published in the top marketing, medical, and nutrition journals nationally and internationally. His latest commercial publication, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, was released in 2006 and in paperback 2007.
Dr. Wansink has had academic appointments at Dartmouth College, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, INSEAD at Fountainbleau France, US Army Research Labs, and Cornell University. He received a Ph.D. at Stanford University, 1990; M.S. at Drake University, 1984; and B.A. at Wayne State University, 1982.

TK: Here is Wansink's Web site on his book. Dig the last line in this article about Wansink's :"mindless eating" observations, as quoted in a USA Today article from October 2005:

Every day for four weeks, researchers put 30 Hershey's Kisses in either clear or opaque dishes for 40 secretaries. The dishes were placed in four different ways: On their desks and visible; on their desks but in containers with lids so the candy wasn't visible; about 6½ feet away and visible; the same distance but not visible.
Researchers kept a daily record of how many pieces of candy were eaten and refilled the bowls every evening. Findings:
• People ate almost eight candies a day when the bowl was on their desks and visible; they each ate about 4½ a day when it was on their desk but in a covered dish.
• They ate an average of about 5½ candies a day when the bowl was 6½ feet away and visible. And they ate slightly more than three candies a day when it was the same distance away and not visible.
"It was basically an 'out of sight, out of mind' demonstration," Wansink says. "The less visible and less convenient the candy, the less people thought about it and were tempted."
And, he adds, "another piece of advice might be to move the fruit bowl closer."