Small Plate Challenge

One-third of American adults are obese and the Cornell Food and Brand Lab is hoping to do something to reduce that number. They have launched the Small Plate Movement in order to help you realize how much food you are eating and, if you are overweight or obese, learn how to cut down your daily intake.

The Small Plate Movement promotes the use of 10" diameter plates at mealtime so that you automatically decrease the amount of food you serve up. The neat thing is that you won't even notice the reduced amount and you'll still feel full. People tend to fill up their plates and that leads to mindless overeating. According to the researchers at Cornell:

A two inch difference in plate diameter -- from 12" to 10" plates -- would result in 22% fewer calories being served, yet it is not drastic enough to trigger a counteracting response. If a typical dinner has 800 calories, a smaller plate would lead to a weight loss of around 18 pounds per year for an average size adult.

That's a lot of calories saved and a lot of pounds lost, so if you need to lose some weight, take the challenge at Small Plate Movement. The Challenge officially starts on January 1, 2009 but why wait for the extra holiday pounds to pile on? The challenge can be incorporated at any time for a one month period.

Daily Nutrition Tip

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