I was eating dinner in a restaurant, where the bar at the TV was showing a cupcake contest on the Food Network.  I wondered if people watching would be stimulated to eat more.  Lo and behold, new research shows that looking at pictures of food causes people’s levels of the hormone ghrelin to go up. Ghrelin is a hormone made by the stomach that increases appetite.  Some researchers think that one way gastric surgery works is by cutting out stomach tissue that would normally make the ghrelin.

So, I keep tempting food out of the house, and stay out of tempting places.  Planning, not willpower!