Nutrition and how much you eat is an important part of being well. It doesn’t have to involve torture, however. One of the easiest things to do is to make small changes that don’t feel like sacrifice but help you rein in eating junk or even eating too much of anything.

“Mindless Eating” (totally worth a read) by Brian Wansink offers info, based on a variety of studies, that can help you choose healthier portion sizes with easy changes. As a plus, it gives lots of leads into how to make those attractive junk foods not seem so attractive.

First, a few easy changes to reduce portion size, which definitely can impact your health:

• Serve your food on smaller plates. Our eyes eat. A portion on a small plate looks bigger and feels more satisfying than the same portion on a large plate, where it looks tiny by comparison. You know those optical illusions in which you’d swear one line was longer — but it isn’t? Same principle.
• Don’t eat “family” style. Dish up your plate in the kitchen, and leave the food there. Food served in big bowls on the table leads to eating more.
• Pour drinks with calories in tall, thin glasses, and you’ll drink less. Drinks in short, wide glasses seem like they have less, and you end up having more.
• Keep unhealthier choices hidden away the best you can. When food is left in plain sight, you eat more. Instead, keep things like fresh fruit and veggies — clean and ready to go — in view.
• If you want a snack, get yourself a portion on a small dish, and put the rest away. The inconvenience of having to go back to get more may stop you from eating extra. Carry the bag of whatever, tub of ice cream, etc. to your chair, and you’re going to mindlessly eat much more than you would have.

One of the most fascinating studies involved two groups of diners served the exact same food and wine. The only difference was in how the wines were labeled. One was presented by wait staff as a new wine out of California. The other? As a new wine out of North Dakota. Yeah, North Dakota isn’t exactly known for its fine wines.

Guess what happened? The people served the allegedly Californian wine enjoyed their meal and thought the wine was amazing. The people served North Dakota wine? Not so much. They complained about the wine and the food. Remember — each group was served the exact same thing.

But what is even more interesting is how much they ate. The group served “Californian” wine ate more. This is what the author calls mindless eating. With the introduction of the wine, they thought: “Oh, this is going to be good!” and ate with that expectation.

You may not realize you’re influenced by these sort of things. No one in the studies thought they were influenced by what something’s called or how it’s presented. But study after study showed we all absolutely are.

My suggestion? Catch yourself at this, particularly when you’re eating out, which is probably the most likely place you’re going to get one of those “healthy” salads that have more calories and fat than if you’d super-sized your meal a couple times over at a fast food restaurant.

Don’t be influenced by the description. Think about what you’re getting, re-name it in your own mind. In addition, pre-determine that you’re not going to eat that huge portion. Share with someone. Or, get it, but ask for a take out container, and immediately put half in that. Then you’ll get two meals for the price of one! You’ll have lunch or dinner for another day, and you’ll enjoy the food just as much without damaging your waistline and your health.

Use this in reverse at home. Serve something healthy, and give it a delicious-sounding name. Call the stuff that’s not as good for you something unappealing. I know you’re not going to do this all the time, but you can make some inroads. Re-name some seriously unhealthy item that you love with an icky name. Have it, but make yourself call it by that name. Bet it loses some — or all — of its appeal. Put your creativity — in the name of your good health — to work against the restaurant and fast food marketers.

Also really pay attention to how something tastes. Have you ever eaten plenty of something that actually wasn’t that good? The studies in this book show you aren’t alone. Very stale popcorn served at a movie theater was still eaten, even though some in attendance commented that it tasted like styrofoam packing peanuts. On top of that, the ones served this nasty-tasting, stale popcorn in bigger buckets ate even more.

Mindless eating is easy, and it has become our habit. But you can change that now that you’re informed, and, as a bonus, not even really feel you’ve made any drastic change.

Start right now, and identify where you can make the first switch. Don’t do all of the above and get overwhelmed. Do one thing. Let it become natural. Then do the next. The road to good health is paved with little steps.