Sweets: out of sight, out of mouth

A packet of sweets lying around the office is likely to frustrate good nutritional resolutions, according to a study by U.S. scientists
. Brian Wansick, Cornell University and his colleagues placed 30 candy boxes near the workplace of 40 women employed at the university for four weeks. Sweets were either about two meters from the desk or on the desk in an opaque box is still on the desktop in a transparent box, do they indicate a publication already available online and published in "The International Journal of Obesity. "

Participants who consumed the most candy (7.7 per day on average) are those on the desktop which researchers had placed a box of sweets transparent. When the box was opaque, participants ate an average in 5.6. Finally, they had consumed an average of 3.1 when the box was about two meters.

"We found a surprising detail: Participants significantly underestimated their consumption of sweets when they were at their desks, while they overestimated when eaten sweets were placed further quantities," says Brian Wansick said in a press release from the university.

These findings "might work also for fruit and vegetables (although that outweigh the workplace may be more difficult!)", The researcher hopes.