Overview:
This lesson focuses on the concept of “eating less in a world of more” as a way to counter the excessive portion sizes that have become the norm in our country. We emphasize that a healthy, whole food diet is not a universal cure for everyone and that quantity as well as quality, is important.
The goal is to develop habitual behaviors around both quality and quantity of food so that unsustainable behaviors (e.g. calorie counting) become unnecessary.
Tactics discussed include “adding friction” as a technique to control overnutrition. This method uses choice architecture to make healthy eating the easy and default choice. It also introduces the three PowerME strategies to apply this concept – Prioritizing Portions, More Food, Fewer Calories, and Time-Based Eating Tactics.
Topic Summary:
- A whole food diet alone might not be the dietary cure for obesity and metabolic disease.
- Quantity of food intake must be considered as well as quality.
- ‘Adding friction’ means making it harder to make unhealthy food choices.
- Choice architecture nudges people towards healthier eating habits without the feeling of deprivation.
- The lesson introduces three strategies to apply the concept of adding friction: Prioritizing Portions, More Food, Fewer Calories, and Time-Based Eating Tactics.
- The power of these strategies is focus on automating behaviors and developing habits rather than relying exclusively on willpower and self-control.
