by Mike Critelli,
In the mid 2000s, as Pitney Bowes’ CEO, I embarked on an initiative to improve how our employees ate when at work or when commuting to and from work. I was influenced by research summarized by Prof. Brian Wansick, then at Cornell, in a book called Mindless Eating. His research demonstrated that much of our excess food and beverage consumption was driven by environmental factors unrelated to our craving for food.
That made complete sense to me for several reasons:
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Grocery retailers charge consumer packaged goods companies far more for placement of foods and beverages at certain places in the store. They specifically recognized that if a food or beverage item was on a shelf between an adult’s waist and eye level, it was far more likely to be purchased. Retailers initiated “shelf placement fees” to capture additional revenue. In retail grocery stores, candy and junk food at the checkout counter are both highly profitable and easily accessible. It was often an impulse purchase, especially for parents with impatient children. Think of these fees as the equivalent of a first class airplane seat.
Research also demonstrated that ease of access to food away from grocery stores or restaurants also determined how much people consumed. Experiments with candy in a bowl in an office reception area were revealing. When candy in an open bowl was on top of a desk, 20-40% more candy was eaten than if the bowl were covered, or the visitor had to reach beyond the top of the desk to access the candy.
“Family size” junk food packages resulted in more food consumption than the same volume of junk food in 5 smaller-size packages. The 100- calorie snack pack was an attempt to control mindless food consumption.
Consumers were surprisingly insensitive to unannounced changes in portion sizes and added sugar and salt in foods. In high school, I worked at a bakery. The owner yelled at one of my co-workers who was filling eclairs. The owner’s words stayed with me decades later: “Don’t put so much filling in the eclairs. No one notices the difference.”
Many online videos showing taste tests in which the subject got the answer wrong reminded me of similar experiments about the power of suggestion in an old TV show called Candid Camera.
We changed the environment around employees and they both ate less and healthier. We did not lecture them about healthy eating. We simply made healthier choices easier:
1. We reduced portion sizes a little at a time. Over a year, our meat, starch, and carbohydrate sizes were reduced 25%. No one noticed or complained.
2. We moved desserts out of plain sight and reduced dessert consumption by 80%.
3. We moved healthy fruits and nuts to the checkout counter, causing more employees to buy them.
4. Unhealthy cold beverages were moved to the top and bottom shelves of beverage coolers. Water was on the shelves between waist and eye level.
5. We provided budgetary incentives to get executives to schedule more catered dinners at our headquarters and other offices, so we could control food and beverage consumption.
6. At offsite conferences, we shortened cocktail periods and controlled alcohol consumption by making liquor counters smaller and further away from attendees.
7. At offsite banquets, we eliminated automatic repouring of wine and liquor glasses. Attendees had to ask for a refill. This had two benefits:
a) Fewer attendees became drunk; and
b) When attendees drank less, they ate less.
8. Reduced food and alcohol consumption helped reduce operating expenses.
9. I deliberately drank water, as opposed to alcohol. That set an example, and it also gave air cover to employees or guests who were struggling with alcohol dependency.
I mention this detailed description because individuals and families can use AI-based tools to alter their daily routines to reduce unnecessary and unhealthy food and beverage consumption. Years ago, my holistic medicine doctor gave me a number of very useful tips, because I had trouble controlling food consumption and weight:
1. Drink two cups of black coffee or expresso every day. That provides energy without providing calories.
2. Use cinnamon or nutmeg to sweeten a fruit plate, as opposed to sugar.
3. Drink plenty of water. It filled me up without adding calories.
4. Get more sleep. We eat more when sleep-deprived.
5. Beware of food additives. They are designed to create addictive behaviors.
One of the most influential books in my thinking about health was Professor Wendy Wood’s Good Habits, Bad Habits, The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, published in 2019. Professor Wood’s research demonstrated that the difference between people with healthy vs. unhealthy lifestyles was not a matter of greater willpower, virtue, or knowledge of what was or was not healthy. The difference resided in the ability of healthier individuals to design their daily lives to make healthy behaviors easier. Once they did that, they operated more on automatic pilot.
Part of what we will do with marrying the MakeUsWell Network and AI is to develop these tools to help our members and the broader population build much healthier daily life habits.
We’re excited about what lies ahead and hope you will join us on this journey as we use technology to create healthier lives by design.