Apparently, when it comes to food, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. Out of sight, out of mind is actually closer to the truth (shall we see how many more cliches I can use before the first paragraph is done?). According to scientists, humans have a very hard time resisting the siren song of the candy jar, because if we see it and it's easy to get to, we're going to have a hard time keeping ourselves away.

Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab has been studying the way people eat, both at home and at work, for years now and have determined that if we see it, we want to eat. According to Brian Wansick, the head of Cornell's Lab, "what really influences our eating are visibility and convenience." Their results make sense to me. If I know that there's ice cream in freezer, it calls to me all evening until I break down and liberate it from it's icy home. However, if I know that there isn't any in there, I may still want it in the abstract, but I'm not going to run out and buy a pint.

What do you guys think? If you know that a treat is only as far away as your co-worker's desk or the freezer or the cabinet over the fridge, how hard is it to resist?

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Do you live in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan, or West Virginia? Congratulations, you're the fattest people in the country!

That's the findings of the CDC and the BRFSS. Over the past 20 years, the waistlines of people in those states have increased 25% or more (the data is from 2004). But people in other states shouldn't feel so superior. Every state has increased in the past 20 years. The only state that didn't was Hawaii, and that's because they don't have any data for Hawaii. But come on, poi donuts and Macademia nuts? I bet they're getting bigger too.

Also check out the fittest cities, fattest cities, and how you can stay fit.

Sarah mentioned yesterday that there are some healthy foods that work as mood elevators, but those foods aren't necessarily what people turn to when they're feeling low. A new study calculated that people who are sad "eat larger amounts of foods they consider tasty, but unhealthy."

The trial was put on by researchers at the University of Mississippi, who invited participants to watch either a tearful romance, Love Story, or a romantic comedy, Sweet Home Alabama, and monitored the amount of buttered, salted popcorn they ate. Unhappy viewers, those watching Love Story, are 28 percent more than their Reese Witherspoon-watching counterparts. A second experiment drove the point even further home by demonstrating that students reading about a tragedy (accidental deaths caused by a fire, not the Greek sort) were 4 times more likely to reach for M&Ms than raisins when both were set out as options.

It is certainly something to keep in mind the next time you're heading to the theater and are wondering whether to get popcorn and candy or skip the snack bar altogether.

Our friends over at Engadget tipped us off to a really unusual diet-helper called the Smart Plate. The 15-cm plate was invented by a Ukrainian scientist, Dr. Hryhory Chausovsky, and is weight sensitive. When the plate is overloaded with food, a palm sized computer attached to the plate is activated and audio alerts are triggered. At that point, acting like your own personal "weight-watcher," the plate will reprimand the user, saying things like, "Stop right there! And what about excess weight?" and "Where's your willpower?" If you really have a problem with overloaded your plate, especially in a buffet-type of situation, it would be worth getting a few odd looks as you pulled out your own dish if it helped you keep your diet under control. And having your plate reprimand you in public is significantly more embarrassing than just bringing out the plate itself, so there is a good chance that the plate really would keep you on track.

Dr. Chausovsky has a number of other weight-loss aids to his name, too. He has a second version of the plate that has a different type of sensor. This one will play music faster and faster, depending on the speed at which food is eaten and the rate at which utensils touch the surface of the dish. Slower eating would keep the music at a normal tempo. He also has a belt that monitors a stomach's expansion during a meal, an armband that monitors calorie intake per bite, a refrigerator magnet that demands"Are you here because you are really hungry, or is it just your emotions?" when the door is opened and "food spectacles" that are tinted to make good food look unappealing.

Chausovsky says that he doesn't take any money for any of his inventions, since he got into the business to benefit people, not to profit from them.

We might not be into participating ourselves, but we to hear about eating competitions, whether they're professional or not. In fact, while the pros are great, it's even more interesting to get an outside perspective from a non-pro who decides to take on a supersized eating task just for the challenge of it. In this case, Bear Silber and some of his friends decided to face off in a local eating competition: the Belly Buster Challenge. The event was held at a restaurant called Pizza and Pipes in Santa Clara, California and involves a single person eating a 20″ cheese pizza with 2 toppings in under one hour. The pizzeria has a few established rules that contestants are expected to abide by and the winner gets the glory, along with some free pizza, a picture on the wall of fame and a free t-shirt.

Bear's friends went with classically topped Pepperoni and Mushroom pizzas, while he strategically opted to have different toppings on each quarter of the pizza (one quarter pepperoni and olive, one quarter Canadian bacon and pineapple, one quarter pesto and tomato and one quarter sausage and mushroom). His friends ended up joining the Wall of Shame, but Bear managed to polish off the pie at only 37 minutes, becoming the first person ever to conquer the Belly Buster Challenge.

Do we have a future competitive eater on our hands here?

The more food that is put in front of you, the better the odds are that you will overeat or, at least, eat more than you might otherwise. Generally, this is common knowledge, but some researchers put it to the test by giving people both good and bad tasting foods. Specifically, while one group of participants got varying sizes of freshly popped popcorn, another group was given 2-week old stale popcorn (described as "perfectly safe, just a bit funky"). The results proved the theory, when fresh popcorn eaters ate 43% more popcorn when it was served in a large container and stale popcorn eaters ate 34% more.

If the taste of a food isn't enough to stop people from eating it, it's best to control the size of the container that it's in. So do yourself a favor and use smaller plates and bowls, especially for snacking. Or fill up a bowl with healthy fruits and veggies for munching.

Exact portion size can be difficult to determine without measuring (which is an option), but there's too much variation in all those guidelines that compare portion sizes to, for example, the size of a fist. When in doubt, just take a little less that you think you should. At the very least, you'll be eating one less bite at a time - and over time, even a small change like will add up.

When we're busy, it can be hard to pull ourselves away from work. Some days it seems to just pile up much faster than we can possibly deal with it. Eating at your desk or in the car can seem like a good way to save a few minutes, but new studies show that working long hours has a negative impact on women's health - especially when it comes to food. And while overworking has an impact on men, it is a greater one on women. Women who work extremely long hours are likely to overeat, craving fatty, sugary, unhealthy snacks more often than any other group, and even stressful events (giving presentations, etc.) can trigger a craving.

But there is an easy solution for anyone, male or female, to controlling emotional eating: think about it. Don't mindlessly reach for another candy bar, but instead take a few minutes to de-stress and evaluate whether you really should eat it.

A survival strategy? Keep a piece (or two or three) of fresh fruit on your desk at all times. That way, even if you give in to the cravings for noshing at your desk, you can polish of a handful or two of grapes before even thinking about heading for the vending machine.

While overeating is something that we can work on, being busy is sometimes a fact of life. Check out our best foods for busy women for a few ideas on how to get through a jam-packed day.

A recent Newsday story looks at overeating from a neurological perspective, likening it to other forms of addiction. One study cited in the article found that drug abusers and overeaters had similarly low numbers of dopamine receptors, which are partly responsible for feelings of satisfaction and fullness. Other studies have found that some obese people's brain chemistry contributes to heightened feelings of pleasure from food. Experts cited in the article are hesitant to formally categorize overeating as an addiction, however. Still, many feel that examining it from that angle may help develop more effective treatment methods.

A recent Pew Research Center survey of over 2,000 adult Americans found that only 39 percent enjoy eating "a great deal." (That is, they enjoy the act of eating, not eating a lot.) This is 9 percent drop from the results of a 1989 Gallup survey. Many of the people polled in the more recent survey attributed their lack of enjoyment to concerns about their weight. Interestingly enough, the overall figures for enjoyment of cooking have stayed the same. Roughly one third of those surveyed said they enjoyed cooking "a great deal." The number of men that enjoy cooking has increased, however, from 25 percent in 1989 to 32 percent today. The Pew site has plenty of other interesting figures concerning eating patterns, junk food consumption and overeating. A Washington Post story on the survey results is available here.

[Image: Pew Research Center]