Everyone dreams of working at Google, even people like me who don't stand a chance at a job with the consistently top rated company. Why? The one story I hear about Google over and over again is how they feed their people. Recently,
Google revealed the secrets to keeping their employees' waistlines trim amongst the mountains of gourmet treats they provide.
Rather than lecture their employees with rants about nutrition and healthy eating, they stealthily creep into their minds with these subtle tactics.
1. Studies show that people fill up on what's closest to them. The salad bar is right up front at the cafeteria while the dessert bar is discretely tucked away in the back.
2. A sign at the entrance of the cafeteria reads, "taking a bigger plate will cause you to eat x-percent more." Google says that this sign lead more people to choose smaller plates and in turn eat less.
3. There are still giant plastic bowls filled with M&M's at every turn, but switching to opaque bowls resulted in employees eating less.
4. The food in the buffet is labeled with color-coded labels. Healthy foods have signs on green to give you the go ahead, and desserts are labeled with red to eat with caution.
Would you want to add some of these tricks to your weight management routine?
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Comments (12)
But I would still pass the salad and go the extra mile for the dessert. ;)
No, the tactic of eating less and moving more has always benn the best one for me.
Haha, interesting.
Yay for Google!
Amazing ! Smart Eating strategies. Kudos to Google !
mind-ninja messing with appetite!! must use jedi powers to counter these mind tricks
HAHAHAHAI read a whole really cool book on stuff like that in high school called "Mindless Eating" by Brian Wansick, who apparently has a PhD in that stuff. It was really neat and actually entertaining! CHeck it out! :)
My college does mildly annoying stuff like this like not putting salt shakers on individual tables. You have to walk around forever to find one. I was very angry at first but I guess it DOES make me use less salt (I used to salt my soups...hahaha).
Hmmm, color-coding. I usually grab smaller plates 'cause they're at the top of my stack of dishes ;)
Oh, and my friend who works at Google always teases this poor grad student about how he's now going to have some seared tuna for his lunch or whatever. *shakes fist*
I think the red/green stuff is pretty accurate.
I am always skeptikal regarding the label "healthy foods". yes, there are unhealthy foods of course like bad fats and aspertame and whatnot but too often people think all you 'can eat' is salad and vegetables. A dessert can entirely consist of good ingredients and be just what you need too. I try to keep every meal healthy. Balance is another story and important too of course.
I do think these tricks are helpful for at home too. I try to have many non-fattening snacks and frozen meals at home so when I am hungry or just want to eat I can choose these instead of a bag of potatoe chips.
I have candy too but it's in a cupboard...now on easter that it's everywhere to grab I notice how I am doing so too.