It's the environment making us fat

There is a new term, which came along in the 1990s. It's the obsogenic environment, which means that our whole environment is geared up to getting us overweight. Just knowing this can help us manage our weight better.

It is hardly surprising that we get fat. We have been designing our environments to expend as little energy as possible. All the shops are gathered together by the car park, so we don't walk to the shops. We don't even get up to turn the channels over on the telly.

And we are given food messages all the time. The TV channels are stuffed with them, not just adverts, but whole programmes. Magazines, even slimming magazines, are stuffed with food messages. And the presentation of food in the shops, as well as the kind of food they sell, gets us thinking about eating.

There are more subtle environmental cues. Food packages have got larger and suggest that larger portions are fine - we didn't ask for it. But we have got used to it. When we go out, it is more often to a restaurant or bar than to play bowls, dance or do a communal activity.

One way to control your eating is to control your own environment. We tend to want to eat when we see food. Research by Brian Wansink has shown that if food is in opaque packets we eat less than if it is in clear packets. And if we have to make an effort to get at the food (even a walk of just a few yards) we eat less. So, here are some good tips to modify your own environment:

• Watch less telly - get another pleasurable activity into your daily routine
• Avoid magazines with loads of food ads
• Shop with a list and get out quick
• Don't buy and store in the house foods that you know you can't resist
• Keep biscuits and other stuff in tins or opaque boxes

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