If you feel like you have tried every weight loss trick in the books, thinking color may help you lose a few pounds.
We found these 3 tips from Reader's Digest magazine for you to try.
1. Contrasting colors help gauge portion control. Being matchy-matchy with your plate and your food, think marinara sauce on a red plate, is a recipe for overeating. Scientists found that people ate about 20-percent more pasta in Alfredo sauce when it was served on a matching white plate than on a contrasting red one. The researchers think that a color difference helps make the brain more aware of portion sizes.
2. Unnatural colors help curb appetite and snacking. The color blue makes us eat less. A possible reason that dates back to our cavemen days -- there aren't many blue foods in nature that we're inclined to avoid them, thinking they might be poisonous. Today, eating on blue plates, or painting your kitchen or dining room blue, might discourage mindless munching.
3. Color-sorted foods help cut down on eating junk. Mentally label what's in the kitchen -- healthy foods are "green," less-healthy are "yellow," and those with little nutritional value are "red." Then, position them in your fridge and pantry so the green foods are most accessible and red foods are hardest to reach. This just may help you cut back on junk.The fewer red foods you see when you open the door, the better you'll eat.