Speed of eating turns out to be one of the earliest predictors of obesity. And obesity is a risk factor for diabetes.

In a study by Robert Berkowitz and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania,  rapid eating (higher number of mouthfuls per minute) of a single laboratory testmeal was a remarkably strong predictor of subsequent weight gain in kids.

At 4 years of age, 32 children of overweight mothers and 29 children of normal weight mothers were given a test meal in a controlled laboratory setting. Mouthfuls of food per minute at this single meal not only predicted changes in BMI from 4 to 6 years but also changes in sum of skinfolds and total body fat. Of course you can always trick your 4-year old into eating slow by providing foods that take longer to eat and if your 4-year old prefers to play with her food and takes forever to finish, you can at least comfort yourself with the notion that she is probably not in danger of having to worry about excess weight any time soon.

But what about you? People who eat rapidly are at risk of being overweight. Research has shown that obese people eat fast and maintain the same rate of eating, whereas normal weight people slow down their rate of eating during the course of the meal. Slowing down allows the stretch receptors to signal to your brain that your stomach is full. Eating quickly means you pass the Full point and reach Stuffed before your brain has been alerted to the meal.

Another interesting piece of research by Yvonne Linne at Huddinge University Hospital in Sweden, hows that eating with a blindfold decreased the intake of food, without making subjects feel less full. Eating blindfolded, therefore, may force subjects to rely more on internal signals. Most of us have stopped using internal signals to guide our eating, and we are getting overweight as a result. With practice, we can start to identify when we are hungry (most of us never feel hunger) and when we are full.

So, focusing on your internal cues helps you reduce weight. To help you achieve this:

• eat slowly (putting your hands in your lap between mouthfuls really slows you down)
• do nothing else whilst eating (no telly, no radio, no reading)
• use a small plate

Can it really be that easy? Well, how quickly do you eat your food?

It takes about 20 minutes for the stretch receptors to signal your brain to say that your stomach is full. So if you are eating really quickly, you might have gone past Full before your brain has caught up. Here are 4 suggestions.

1. Take smaller bites.
   
2. Chew thoroughly without gulping.
3. Enjoy the taste and texture of food.
4. Put your hands in your lap between mouthfuls

This  gives you time to trigger the body's satiety response, so fewer calories are consumed to feel satisfied.

Hypnosis helps you to embed changes like these, so that they become automatic. So if you are near Glasgow, contact me.

Hedonic hyperphagia is overeating for reward or pleasure rather than need for calories. Eating because it is nice. Eating for fun.

There are lots of foods we eat because they are nice, and they tend to be processed foods. And they tend to be developed by people in white coats, in the lab. So what is going on there then?

Well, Dr Kessler, who used to head up the US Food and Drugs Administration, says "The food industry has been able to figure out the bliss point, the optimal combinations of fat and salt, fat and sugar, fat, sugar and salt that you think tastes good". So industrially-developed food  is designed to get you to eat for pleasure.

And it is eating for pleasure - the crispy, salty, fatty crisps mmmm, the sweet and creamy (read fatty) chocolate aaah - that underlies our excess calorie intake.

And it really is addictive. After all, these industrial giants want you to buy more, and if you buy more, you eat more. (In the hand is in the mouth.)

The reward centres in the brain that regulate drug and other forms of addiction are the same as those brain areas that are stimulated by highly palatable foods (read fat, sugar, fat, salt). It is not surprising that genes associated with  addiction may also be linked with obesity. This assumption finds new support in a study published this month in PLoS Genetics by Nancy Heard-Costa from Boston University School of Medicine.

This research supports the notion that some individuals may be more susceptible to obesity because of an increased genetic predisposition to reward-seeking behaviours, that obviously include seeking out highly-palatable (addictive, fatty, salty, sugary) foods as well as other addictive behaviours.

Well, you might say, that is all very interesting. What does it mean for me? Well, it means this. Some of us eat for pleasure, and indeed take in most of our calories when we are eating for pleasure. This is my recommendation. If you are one of these people (and you will know this by checking your supermarket receipts, and if you are on the podgy side). Don't buy processed snack materials in the supermarket. If you do, you will buy them in large quantities and you will eat them in large quantities. Don't eat food out of sacks or buckets (crisps come in sacks). Else you will gain weight.

If you must buy food to eat for fun (and hypnotherapy will help you stop) then buy it in small quantities from small shops.

Research into people who are trying to lose weight has shown that drinking a pint of water (tap water is fine) before a meal help to reduce weight. The study, by Elizabeth Dennis and colleagues from Virginia Tech, is published in this month’s issue of Obesity.

Why is this. Well, it might be because your stomach is stretched before you start eating and so your stretch receptors can notify your brain that you are satisfied a bit quicker. Normally this takes about 20 minutes, but it takes quite a while to drink a pint of water, so this may mean the stretch receptors are getting into gear quite a bit before the food comes tumbling in.

While part of this effect may well be a reduction in meal size after drinking water, other mechanisms are conceivable. Previous studies have suggested that water drinking can increase metabolic rate. Also, people drinking water with their meals may be less likely to drink caloric drinks such as fizzy pop or wine or beer or hot chocolate - thereby further reducing caloric intake.

Whatever the mechanism, regularly drinking a pint of water prior to every meal may well be an easy and inexpensive way to help manage your weight.