That old joke about being on the “See-Food Diet” (“I see food… and I eat it”) is no laughing matter, according to new research at Cornell University. Brian Wansink, PhD, and colleagues studied 210 kitchens and the women who use them. Writing in the journal Health Education and Behavior, researchers reported that women who kept fresh fruit out on the counter were more likely to be normal weight. But women with similarly easy access to snacks, boxed cereals and sodas were significantly more likely to be overweight or obese. “If energy-rich foods are visible and conveniently available in the home kitchen, household members’ BMIs (body-mass index) are likely to be high,” researchers concluded. They also found that normal-weight women tended to keep a designated cupboard for snack foods and were less likely to buy foods in bulk than those who are overweight or obese.
