Digital Age Diet

Hungry yet? According to Time Magazine, you probably should be. In a photo essay about what makes us eat more, sight is listed as one of the biggest triggers. Just seeing a certain food you like can set off your hunger. And this can be pretty handy for advertisers, or even the companies with food on the grocery store shelves. You weren't really hungry before, but when you saw that hot dog... you've just gotta eat.

What has become of our eating habits in the digital age? Although trends like diet foods and organics have become popular, the old archetypal junk foods just won't die. Our classic drug of caffeine is gaining even more popularity, childhood obesity is skyrocketing, and we're all in a sugar-coated downward spiral. So here are some fun, sometimes frightening facts and statistics about our Digital Age Diet:

• Many babies begin to overeat by the time they reach their second birthday. At this time, they start ignoring the pangs of fullness and follow social cues
• 26% of 2-to-5-year-olds are at risk of becoming overweight, and 14% are already overweight
• Size of utensils or plates, and fullness of containers easily influence the amount you eat. If given a bigger utensil, you're likely to eat about 15% more. A bigger plate, 25%. When trying to pour a shot into a wide glass instead of a tall one, you usually overestimate by about 50%. And if you pour from a full container of liquid, you're likely to pour yourself about 10% more than a half-full one.
• There are around 170 million caffeine addicts in the U.S. 55 to 90% of citizens consume caffeine every day.
• The most caffeinated soft drink in Pepsi max, at about 80 mg per container. The most caffeinated energy drink is Powershot, packing 1200 mg per container. A harmful dose of caffeine can be around 750 mg.
• Additives and dyes have been directly linked to hyperactivity in children (big surprise there). Some children were even shown to become hyper after consuming the dye equivalent to just 4 oz of candy.

And these are just a handful of the facts I found. They all led to more consumption, higher rate of obesity, more money on fancy weight-loss programs... a vicious cycle. More of an emphasis has been put on health, but when will we start following it? Will obesity rates ever start declining, or will our waist sizes increase even more in the years to come?

Coming soon: hopefully some more cool statistics (the internet kept giving me error messages, delaying my research), and some relations with food + technology.

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