Could your fridge be making you fat?

If you’re looking to shed some pounds it may be time to reorganise your fridge

Fridge 1 (LL)
Fridge 1 (LL)
(Image credit: REX)

If you’re looking to shed some pounds it may be time to reorganise your fridge

If you’re hoping to slim down after a decadent summer it may be time to think about how you fill your fridge, a new US study reveals.

You are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables if you keep them at the front of your fridge, as research shows that we are three times more likely to eat the first thing we see than the fifth.

Meanwhile, storing calorie-loaded cakes, fatty snacks and pizza directly in your line of vision will make them impossible to resist.

According to Brian Wansink, Professor of Nutritional Science at Cornell University, the way our food is stored has a huge impact on how much we consume.

His researchers took photos of more than 100 kitchen cupboards and asked their owners to keep a diary of what they ate. They then took another 100 people and moved around the contents of their cupboards in different ways, monitoring the effects on what they ate.

'We found a really strong tendency towards the food which is visible. If you put your least healthy food at the front of the cupboard or refrigerator, that's the one you are most likely to eat,' Wansick said.

'You are much less likely to eat the fifth or 10th item you see when you come home tired from work. Cupboards where you cannot see food all the time are better than open shelving, especially for snack foods which don't require preparation.'

So opting for a smaller fridge and fewer cupboards or putting unhealthy food out of reach may be the best way to avoid temptation!

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