In the US, part of our collective weight problem may be that we are on the consumerist treadmill and can't slow down. If something's really good we make an "mmmmm" sound and then we chow down and drift off to thinking about what we will do later. We watch too much TV, talk on the cell phone incessantly as we rush from place to place, so we forget how to lose ourselves in the sensation of eating, from the first bite through to the last, each lifting of the fork part of the poetry, even the dab of a napkin becomes transcendental if done with one's full attention. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself here. Lately I've taken a vow of no TV and no electric lights in my apartment after work, and it's amazing how much sharper my senses are, eating by candlelight without all the distractions.
Of course the trend of completely dark restaurants is not exactly new, but it seems to me it's still yet to catch on in the US the way it has in Germany, Canada and London. But I say it's time we here in the US began to slow ourselves down a little bit, stop to smell the roses, taste the wine, unplug the TV, and relax... we may not need dark restaurants if we can darken our own living rooms.
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