Good Ideas: Limit the Food Porn
Out of sight, out of mind.
I’m a sucker for a juicy burger. After seeing Adam Richman blink his big brown eyes at the camera, then take a big bite out of the totally ridiculous mountain of ground beef he’s challenging on Man vs. Food all I can think about is eating a burger myself.
There are whole cable television networks dedicated to celebrating the lucious look and sound of food. The Food Network. Cooking Channel. They’ll keep you salivating 24 hours a day.
Have you noticed how the chefs on these networks refer to food as “products?” They’re trying to sell you something. And they want to sell you a lot of it.
Did you know there’s actually a website called Food Porn Daily? Its tag line is “click, drool, repeat.” No subtlety there.
All of these images work to make you think you’re hungry—even when you’re not. They drive cravings. They drive yearnings. They drive over-eating.
Magazines do the same. Food & Wine. Gourmet. Bon Appetit. Food companies spend millions on ads and advertorial to make sure that their products appear irresistible.
Even cookbooks have evolved from the staid lists of recipes to full color, fully illustrated picture books. Take a look inside Julia Child’s The French Chef Cookbook and compare that to (the soon-to-be-released) Rachel Ray’s Look + Cook, which promises “100 can’t-miss main courses in pictures.”
You get the idea.
Limit exposure to food temptation and be less likely to over-eat.
A single hamburger patty (even with all the fixing, but maybe not the white puffy bun or the side of fries) is within reasonable yumminess for most diabetics. But two, three, four, or more patties are not—no matter what you saw on TV.
