Right now I’m eating caramel corn from a bag I bought at the fair the other day. It was just sitting on my desk begging to be eaten. Am I actually hungry? No. But my eyes are. Unfortunately, we often eat for other reasons than pure hunger. Check out my “Hungry Flower”, each petal representing a different kind of hunger. Each can get us into trouble.

Because this is such a big topic, rather than posting it all here in this one posting, this is going to be a series. Each post will add one more petal to our flower until it is complete.

Eye Hunger

Admit it. You know you’ve been guilty of eye hunger. Who hasn’t? That visual stimulus triggers us to eat something, just as the caramel corn did me. Have you ever walked by a candy store and those chocolate truffles are crying out to you, saying “come in and check us out”? Eye hunger also gets us to eat more than we should, as in “his eyes are bigger than his stomach.” I wonder if we’d have a problem with “clean the plate syndrome” if we had to eat our meals blindfolded. You’d then have to use other cues besides what you saw to determine if you had had enough to eat.

How many of you have gone out for dinner and said, “I’m stuffed. I can’t eat another bite.”? Yet, let the waiter bring around the dessert cart, and all of a sudden, you’ve found some space for that raspberry tarte or creme brulee. Or think about when you sat down to your meal and perused the menu. As you read the description of the dish, your mind’s eye was picturing what it would look like. Many times I’ve been disappointed when the dish arrived and it didn’t look anything like I had expected. Maybe that’s why I enjoy eating at Japanese restaurants where they have those plastic models of what to expect. Or I’m grateful when I’m being shown to my table that people around me have already been served their meals so I can get an idea of what the food might look like. I’m not ashamed to say that I have, on occasion, asked a diner what he or she is having because it looked so good.

Even the size of your plate or bowl will influence how much you eat. The bigger the dinner dish, the more we’ll naturally put on it. Many of us have an idea of how much space on a plate should be occupied with food. No matter what size the dish, only so much space will be left blank. Inevitably, the larger the dish the more you’re going to eat.

I always recommend to my clients that they leave space between the different foods on their plate. Once the foods are touching, people feel they can pile it higher and wider. Watch children and you’ll often see them get upset if one food is touching the other. That’s why a picnic plate that is divided works really well for kids and may do the same for you.

The Positive Side of Eye Hunger

On the positive side of eye hunger is actually using your eyes to enjoy what it is that you eat. That’s why I always say that presentation matters. When you slop food on your plate and your eyes have to experience that, you’ve already set your mind up to a “who cares” kind of dinner and so it will be eaten with the same attitude. Instead of enjoying each bite, it’s just a matter of getting it eaten.

Why do you think people are so fascinated by all those television food programs that make it a point to present it beautifully as if it were a sculpture? When food is presented like this, you’ll respect it that much more, probably slowing down the speed in which you eat, savoring the experience.

Your Homework Assignment

Here’s a little homework assignment for you. Wander around the internet or pick up a food magazine and check out the food pictures. Let your eyes savor the food in a non-caloric experience. Then ask yourself, did it get me hungry? If the food had actually been there, would you have eaten it? If so, you now know the feeling of eye hunger and the trouble it can get you into.

Visit www.spinarecipe.com to play the slot machine for recipes and spin the wheels for ingredients. It’ s a Vegas experience in your kitchen!