Even if a person knows what constitutes a healthy meal, he or she is likely to eat more calories when certain “visceral factors” are in effect, such as it having been a long time since they last ate, being stressed or eating away from home.

That’s the conclusion of a report from the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. The theoretical model found that when people go longer between meals they tend to consume more solid fats, sugar and alcohol — and thus more calories — at the next meal.

Long space between meals, stress cause more eating

People who go five hours between meals instead of four would be expected to consume 52 more calories at the next meal; notching that up to six hours would mean 91 more calories.

People who work more also tend to eat more the longer they go between meals. Someone who works 40 hours a week would eat about 20 percent more calories than a person without a job when eating meals four hours apart, while eating every eight hours makes a full-time worker eat almost 40 percent more calories than an unemployed person waiting the same amount of time between meals.

And if you’re eating that meal at a restaurant, no matter how long you’ve gone between meals, you’re likely to eat about 107 more calories than you would have if you’d eaten at home.

People with less nutrition knowledge make worse choices

People across the board eat more if they’re hungry or stressed out, but people who know less about nutrition also tend to eat more in these situations than do people with more nutrition knowledge.

Someone who scored a 50 on a diet and health knowledge survey would eat 28 percent more calories when eating away from home, while someone who scored 100 on the survey would only eat 12 percent more calories.

The report says that even people with “dietary goals” will allow situational factors like being hungry or being away from home keep them from making healthier choices. This could go a long way toward explaining why it’s so difficult to lose weight, given that most of us are under time pressures, do a lot of eating away from home and sometimes skip meals or go a long time between meals.

This report would also be a great argument for people who want to see nutritional information posted on menu boards, because at least it would help those stressed and hungry people make slightly better choices without a lot of work on their part.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 and is filed under Fast food and restaurants, Nutrition. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.