Buy Walking VideosHow Choice Is Bad For Our Diet
I just watched this amazing video of a talk from Barry Schwartz about the paradox of choice.
I KNEW this lecture was going to be interesting when he flashed this on the screen.
These were how many choices he had when he went to his grocery store.
- 285 Varieties of cookies
- 75 Iced teas
- 230 soups
- 175 Salad Dressings
With all these food choices, you would think that it would make eating EASIER, but it hasn’t. It’s actually HARDER to choose a cookie, tea, soup or dressing. This vast freedom of choice means that we constantly have to make decisions. This can cause a variety of problems:
Paralysis rather than liberation: If you have ever faced a menu the size of a book, you might understand how difficult it can be to make a decision. Often people choose to make no choice at all. If you set aside your food choices until you are starving, you end up making the decision when you’re unable to choose healthy food.
Less satisfaction with your decisions: If you choose one healthy option instead of another, it’s easy to imagine that the other one would have tasted better or filled you up more. This makes the food you DID eat LESS satisfying. Whenever you are eating something, you are haunted by ALL the things that you’re not eating.
Escalation of expectations: With all the different options to eat available, your expectations about what makes a good meal goes up. If you had less choice, you would be just happy to be full. When someone offers you ice cream at their house, you’re just happy to have whatever flavor they have. When you go to Baskin-Robbins with all their flavors of ice cream, you expect the ice cream that you get to be perfect. “The secret to happiness is low expectations.”
Self-blame: When you eat something that doesn’t taste right or doesn’t make you feel full enough to last you, the only person to blame is yourself. You had all these choices and you chose WRONG. When you follow a strictly structured eating plan, like Jenny Craig, you can blame the plan or their food.
Barry Schwartz admits that some choice is better than none, but it doesn’t follow that more choice is better than some choice. We are overwhelmed with food choices every day and this has made eating a unsatisfying chore. If you decrease your choices, then eating is easier and more satisfying. “Everybody needs a fishbowl.” I believe this is why people are attracted to diets that limit the kind of food you are allowed to eat. It makes your choices easier and increases your happiness.
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June 10th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I agree Schwartz – it CAN be overwhelming. However, I have my own way of solving the problem. I don’t buy anything that contains high fructose corn syrup, and have composed a list of each type of grocery item that I know is “safe,” and I can eliminate at least half of what is on the shelves.
Many people, especially those in retail, also agree with Schwartz. When I was a teenager, I lived overseas at a military base. My mother worked for a Danish importer that sold oak furniture. The factory itself offered at least 10 different colors of stains, yet the man who owned the company would only offer light oak and dark oak stain. His rationale was that the more choices people had the longer it took them to make a decision and the more confused it made them. It worked like a charm for him.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:31 am
I should remeber to take my list
June 17th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I agree with this completely…For the first time in my life I am working with a nutritionist who’s plan was to cut back my foods and I would follow a detailed menu which advanced by stages (each stage offering more choice).
As I became comfortable with the first stage she slowly began adding more foods. The last two weeks, even though I have had incredible results, I have asked her not to advance me to the following stage…I find myself confused with choices, and scared that I will make the wrong choice each time. I am comfortable where I am, and I feel in control.