Recent research revealed the snackers around us impact our food choices. I'm around my two kids most of the day. They just downed pretzels, cheese nips and a juice box (a special treat since friends are over). I also threw in a tiny bit of Valentine's Day candy. From this research, I can assume I'm in trouble.

In the study, 147 Duke University undergrads watched a video of a person talking about advertising. The person on the video had two bowls of snacks sitting in front of them -- goldfish crackers and animal crackers. Study participants had a bowl of goldfish crackers and another bowl of animal crackers in front of them as well. Here's the interesting part, when the person on the video only snacked from the goldfish bowl, participant viewers took from their goldfish bowl 71 percent of the time. When the person on the video only ate animal crackers, participants took goldfish only 44 percent of the time -- even though participants stated a preference for goldfish crackers.

We do mimic the snackers in our midst. It was definitely easier to control my eating habits before having kids. Beyond the work environment, when I was single, it was just me and whatever I chose to put in the grocery cart. I gained five pounds after starting to date my current husband -- he likes late night ice cream. If only he'd munch on sugar snap peas and frozen grapes instead!

Source