Junk Food Drawer

 After I got back to work from lunch at Penn Station, I pulled out my vitamins that I take daily. I store these in my junk food drawer at work. These are mostly just various snack items I have collected and stashed away for when I get hungry at work and need an extra snack.



Contents of my junk food drawer at work



Actually, most of these items have been collected from various sensory tests that I've participated in for the Food Sciences department on campus. Purdue runs a sensory lab where they test out new food products or conduct comparison tests.  Some of the tests I've participated in in the past few months include: Mrs. Fields Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies, Greek Yogurt, Cake, Pizza, and Flavored Water. Basically, you arrive at the sensory lab, plop yourself in front of an empty computer, then push the button that prompts them to slide up a little trapdoor in the wall and provide you with whatever food you are sampling for the day. You evaluate the product based on appearance, consistency, taste, texture, and other relevant factors and fill out the accompanying survey. Once you've submitted the survey, you get to collect a treat from the table as your reward. As evidenced by my junk food drawer, treats include Reese's, Oreo's, Combos, gum, and other snacks. 

So, in addition to my normal daily meals, I'll occasionally - for the good of science, mind you - end up eating a couple pieces of cake or donuts, plus picking up another unhealthy treat to save for later. 

Now, Francisco and I debated whether sensory tests could be part of our three week plan. They are providing us ready-to-eat food after all, but they are by no means a restaurant. My vote was nay, and that's a decision we've stuck with.

Decisions like that are what has led to the realization of possibly the largest benefit of this experiment: no more mindless snacking. For most people, that is where the calories tend to pile on anyway. Snacks have to be pre-planned since I can't just pop open my junk drawer and grab a Reese's. This morning, I had half of a Starbuck's iced lemon pound cake for breakfast and saved the other half for an afternoon snack. I was still kind of hungry after eating my snack. On a normal day, I might have grabbed something else out of my drawer. Fortunately, the constraints of this experiment forbid me from doing that, and I realized I didn't need anything more after all.   

I'm sure many of us have heard that you should slow down and savor your food if you are trying to control your weight. Why is that? It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to realize your stomach is full. If you eat more slowly, you start to recognize the signs that your body is full before you reach that unpleasant "stuffed" state.