The researchers at the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab maintain a list of people who have done something fairly unusual in today’s world: They’ve been a healthy weight for their entire lives, never fluctuating more than five or 10 pounds, barring pregnancy.
The purpose of the Global Healthy Weight Registry, essentially, is to share the secrets of not getting fat with the rest of us. It’s just another way that scientists are trying, mostly in vain, to help curb the obesity epidemic.
The Food and Brand Lab recently released another ream of data from the 147 registry participants. Here’s the surprising thing: Nearly half—48 percent—said they don’t diet. Three-quarters of them “rarely” diet. These people are thin, and have been thin their entire lives, yet they have never so much as perused the Jenny Craig website.
“Most slim people don’t employ restrictive diets or intense health regimes to stay at a healthy weight,” said Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab, in a statement. “Instead, they practice easy habits like not skipping breakfast, and listening to inner cues.”
The way the registry participants maintain their svelte weights is by following some slightly less strict food rules for pretty much their entire lives.
This article was originally published on www.theatlantic.com. Read the complete article here.
