In spite of the gourmet magazines, fad restaurants, and fancy cook books, it must be admitted that eating is, in fact, largely an automatic process. Trying to understand the process that's led to the obesity epidemic in the USA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) commissioned a report that's been published online.

It's often assumed that, given the right information and motivation, people can successfully reduce their food intake over the long term. An alternative view, put forward here, is that eating is an automatic behavior over which the environment has more control than individuals do. Automatic behavior occurs without awareness, initiates without intention, continues without control, and operates efficiently, with little effort. The evidence for this is provided by studies of the influence of portion size, food visibility and attractiveness, availability, and the circumstances surrounding the meal (duration, numbers of people sharing the meal, what others are eating, and so on). If eating is automatic, one would predict that it would favor foods that are most available, most visible, and require the least effort to get. In fact soft drinks, salty snacks, French fries, and pizza meet these description and their sales are still soaring.

If we are to adapt to this view of eating behavior, we should focus much more on "shaping the food environment" rather than trying to educate the individual about good nutrition. The need is to decrease the accessibility, visibility, and quantities of food people are exposed to. As a simple example, taking soda machines out of schools is a good start. The authors of the study point out that small changes like this can produce moderate to large results, as humans are very sensitive to small changes in the food environment. Well, we know that dieting usually doesn't work, so it's worth trying a new approach ...