"Furthermore, we have found that the heavier a person is - French or American - the more they rely on external cues to tell them to stop eating and the less they rely on whether they felt full," said senior author Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
If you're overweight, consider that an external cue.
BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
The human eye is capable of differentiating 10 million colors.
GET ME THAT. STAT!
New testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that formaldehyde levels in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after disasters (such as hurricanes Katrina and Rita) are, on average, five times higher than what people are exposed to in most modern homes.
NEVER SAY DIET
The world's speed-eating record for spiral-sliced ham is two pounds, 10 ounces in five minutes, held by Seaver Miller.
Calculate your stroke risk
nhlbi.nih.gov/about/framingham/stroke.htm
Use an Excel spreadsheet to crunch the numbers and deduce your risk of suffering a stroke (a sudden loss of oxygen to the brain). Based on data from the Framington Heart Study. Just remember: It's an estimate and not an alternative to a real clinical evaluation.
STORIES FOR THE WAITING ROOM
Chinese birth-control experts in 900 B.C. advised women to swallow 16 tadpoles fried in quicksilver immediately after intercourse.
PHOBIA OF THE WEEK
Syngenesophobia - fear of relatives
BEST MEDICINE
Patient: It's been a month since my visit and I still feel terrible.
Doctor: Did you follow the instructions on the medicine I gave you?
Patient: Yes. The bottle said "keep tightly closed."
OBSERVATION
As a man, I do not like visiting our family doctor. Like many general care practitioners, he has a fancy sheepskin diploma on the wall and a box of latex gloves on the counter. The diploma apparently authorizes him to use the gloves any way he sees fit.
- Humorist Bud Mortenson
CURTAIN CALLS
In 1901, Maud Willard threw herself over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The fall didn't kill her; her pet did. Willard had decided to take her dog with her, cramming the canine into the barrel, too. The dog pressed its nose up against the barrel's single air vent. Maud died of suffocation.
