Important announcement

Dear visitor,

Please note that this OpenCourseWare platform will be replaced at the end of 2026 by a new platform (under the same url ocw.tudelft.nl).

Courses and their contents that are currently available the platform will partly be migrated. URL’s for this content will change and content might be unavailable for some time. In addition, some courses will not be available anymore.

If you are linking to specific courses on this platform (for instance for your students), please take timely measures to avoid problems with access. Possible actions are:

  • Download the materials to your local platform (laptop, server)
  • For educators only (including TU Delft lecturers): Contact us at ocw@tudelft.nl and inform us what course you are using in what context (institute, program, period of use, number of students). We will research (in collaboration with the authors of the course) and decide if we will migrate the course, and if yes, can supply you with a new url.

Thank you.

Home Courses Healthy ageing in 6 steps – Let your environment do the work Course materials Readings 4.3 The kitchen: reading & references

4.3 The kitchen: reading & references

Course subject(s) Module 4. Everyday environments

Prof. Brian Wansink from Cornell University in the United States studies the unconscious influences on our eating behaviour. In his books he describes his studies such as the influence of the size of plates, glasses, cutlery, and many other unconscious triggers. 

  • Brian Wansink. Mindless eating. Why we eat more than we think.2010.  
  • Brian Wansink. Slim by design. Mindless eating solutions for everyday life. 2014

Most studies on portion size are from the United States where it has been well documented how portion sizes have increased in the past decennia; not only in in fastfood stores, but also in restaurants and at home.

  •  Nielsen SJ, Popkin BM. Patterns and trends in food portion sizes, 1977–1998. JAMA 2003;289:450–3.

That this increase in portion size makes people eat more and contributes to obesity has also been extensively studied:

  •  Young LR, Nestle M. The contribution of expanding portion sizes to the US obesity epidemic. Am J Public Health 2002;92:246–9
Creative Commons License
Healthy ageing in 6 steps - Let the environment do the work by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/healthy-aging-6-steps/.
Back to top
[sg_popup id=6]