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Eating as an automatic behavior.

Deborah Cohen1, Thomas A Farley

  • 1RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA. dcohen@rand.org

Preventing Chronic Disease
|December 18, 2007
PubMed
Summary
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Eating is an automatic behavior influenced by the environment, not individual self-control. This challenges traditional obesity interventions, suggesting environmental changes are more effective than nutrition education for long-term weight management.

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Science
  • Obesity Research
  • Environmental Psychology

Background:

  • The obesity epidemic persists despite widespread nutrition information and societal stigma.
  • Current approaches often assume individuals can self-regulate food intake with sufficient knowledge and motivation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To question the assumption of self-regulation in eating behavior.
  • To propose an alternative model of eating as an automatic behavior controlled by environmental factors.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing studies on environmental influences on eating.
  • Analysis of the characteristics of automatic behaviors (unawareness, unintentionality, lack of control, efficiency).

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Eating behavior is significantly influenced by environmental cues like portion size, food visibility, salience, and accessibility.
  • Individuals often lack awareness of their eating volume and the environmental factors affecting it.
  • Evidence supports viewing eating as an automatic behavior rather than a purely volitional one.

    • Conclusions:

    • Rethinking eating as an automatic behavior has major implications for public health strategies.
    • Interventions should shift focus from nutrition education to modifying the food environment to combat the obesity epidemic.