Marie Kondo keeps repeating it over and over again: tidying up our interior is a spark of happiness. American researchers from Cornell University add: tidying up our interior can also prevent us from getting fat. According to them, if you live in a house with a messy kitchen, you might be more tempted to nibble. Conversely, a tidy interior could be the way to protect you from food cravings. This relationship between storage and eating behavior was made by researchers from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University (USA). By studying the reactions of 98 female volunteers, American psychologists observed that cluttered kitchens encouraged eating.
For the purposes of the experiment, related in Environment and Behaviorthe participants were divided into two groups: one group waited in a dirty and untidy kitchen with dishes in the sink and newspapers strewn on the table. The other group was placed in a perfectly tidy and cleaned kitchen. In both cases, cookies, biscuits and raw vegetables were made available to the volunteers.
To create an even more stressful environment, a phone would ring every two minutes, adding a disruptive element to this scenario.
Clutter can lead to loss of control
In the end, the women who were in a “chaotic” environment consumed twice as many cookies as those placed in a clean and orderly kitchen. The former absorbed 65 additional calories every 10 minutes compared to the other group.
For the researchers, this experiment proves that an untidy environment can add stress to a person, even more when they are going through an emotionally trying period, as can be the case during this period of confinement. The mess outside could make stressed women lose control over their diet.
6 tips from Marie Kondo for a tidier kitchen
- Don’t leave anything on the counter near the sink or stove.
- Keep a minimum of pots and pans: keep only those that are useful to you and store them all in the same place.
- Store groceries by “family”: cereals and snacks on the bottom shelf, canned goods on the next, and flour, spices and the like on the top shelf.
- After emptying the cupboards, drawers and fridge for sorting, take the opportunity to clean up.
- Also sort through household products and keep the essentials in a basin under the sink.
- Do not throw away unused dishes: put them aside in a box that you will drop off at Emmaüs when the confinement is over.
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