weight

We've all heard the usual explanations for Americans' expanding waistlines – everything from too many carbs to too little exercise. But might hardware stores and hair salons also be responsible? The idea isn't as farfetched as it may seem.

Virtually everywhere we go these days – pharmacies, bookstores, banks, airports, auto repair shops – there's food. And much of it is in the form of high-calorie snacks like sodas, candy, cookies, muffins, frozen sweets, and chips, all of which can be hard to resist.

A new study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, provides startling evidence of just how ubiquitous these temptations are. The researchers sent volunteers to visit more than 1000 retail stores in 19 U.S. cities. They found that snack foods were available in 41 percent of businesses, often close to the cash register.

Some of the stores were places you'd expect to find food, such as pharmacies and gas stations. But many others were not. More than one in five furniture stores sold snacks, as did 16 percent of clothing stores, 54 percent of car dealerships, and 55 percent of home and garden stores.

Let's assume you're exposed twice per week to these temptations and succumb just 10 percent of the time, buying a typical snack containing 250 calories. The researchers calculated that this would add up to 2600 extra calories a year. Keep doing this for several years, and before you know it, you're packing on pounds.

As this video shows, the more accessible that snack foods are, the more we tend to eat. Unfortunately, steering completely clear of them isn't an option (unless you're willing never to leave your house). One solution is to become more mindful of what and how much we're eating and to think twice before we buy. If that big muffin at the bookstore is beckoning you, try counting to ten and asking yourself "am I really sure I want to eat this?" Often the answer will be no, and you can summon the willpower to skip the snack.

It's also a good idea to carry healthful, lower-calorie snacks with you. That way, when the sight of an oversized cookie gives you the urge to eat, you can grab an apple or a handful of nuts. And by not blowing money on snacks in the store, you'll have a little more to spend on what you came to buy in the first place.

How mindful are you? Unless you're a Buddhist, it may sound like a strange question. But being more mindful could be an answer to two health issues high on many people's top-10 list: stress and weight.

Simply put, mindfulness means being aware of what you think and do in response to what's around you. It's the idea behind a technique known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which was developed by best-selling author Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. Research has shown that MBSR can help alleviate anxiety, depression, and pain.

MBSR, which is now offered by medical centers around the world, teaches people to live in the moment and become more aware of how they respond to their surroundings. As a result, they can change how they view whatever causes stress, pain, or other negative feelings and thereby achieve greater peace of mind. Typically, training is intensive, requiring eight weekly 2.5-hour classes plus 45 to 60 minutes a day of meditation. For some busy, stressed-out people, the time commitment is, well, too stressful.

A recent study, published in the journal Health Education & Behavior, has found that a scaled-down version of MBSR can be used successfully at workplaces. People who attended weekly one-hour MBSR meetings at lunch and practiced 20 minutes of yoga a day at their desks reported feeling less stress and sleeping better than those in a comparison group who did not participate.

On the heels of that research comes another new study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, suggesting that mindfulness may also play a role in weight control. Participants (80% of them women) filled out questionnaires asking how often they had reactions such as:

• When a restaurant portion is too large, I stop eating when I'm full.
• I taste every bite of food that I eat.
• I recognize when I'm eating and not hungry.
• When I'm sad, I eat to feel better.

Those who were more mindful about food and eating tended to weigh less. They were also more likely to practice yoga, which the researchers hypothesize may have taught them greater self-awareness.

Food scientist Brian Wansink has written a terrific book, called Mindless Eating, about our lack of mindfulness regarding food and what we can do about it. I highly recommend it. And for more on how greater self-awareness can help control stress, sit back, relax, and watch this video segment.