Content provided by Revolution Health Group

When it comes to bad eating habits, sometimes it's not what we eat, but how we eat it. That's because one of our biggest diet problems is mindless eating.

Think about it — how often do you gorge in front of the TV, polish off breakfast on the drive to work or munch more than you intended? To break these habits, nutrition experts say that we need to focus more on the mind than on the stomach.

MORE ON WEIGHT LOSS


Hand me a fork ... and the remote

Problem: If you can't eat a meal without sitcoms blaring in the background, you may be losing track of how much you're eating.

Pointers: Your brain is distracted from the fullness message being sent from your stomach. How bad is it to eat in front of the TV? Bad, say the experts, for both kids and adults.

A recent study of 548 Boston area children by the Harvard School of Public Health found that children who watched more television ate more calories — an extra 167 calories per additional hour. Adults who watched more than two hours of television a day were also more likely to be overweight, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition study. That's probably because the couch potatoes ate more — 137 calories a day more than adults who watched TV for an hour a day or less.

Deal or no deal?

Problem: If a grocer's sign says "3 for $3," you're more likely to buy three items than the single product you really need — and when you bring extra food home, you're tempted to eat more.

Pointers: Don't let the numbers sway you into buying extra. It's OK to stock up when it's a staple item like canned tuna or frozen chicken breasts but not when it's bags of chips or quarts of ice cream. And beware of other hidden persuaders. We might eat more than we meant to because of advertising hype or super-sized portions, says Brian Wansink, PhD, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab.

Even the size of the container can cause us to eat more than we need. A study at a Philadelphia movie theatre, for example, showed that people given extra-large containers of free popcorn ate nearly double the amount compared to people who were given large containers. When people were given more, they ate more.