My New Diet Plan: Always Eat Alone

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Via Andrew Sullivan, we learn this from the good folks at New Scientist:

Researchers at Georgia State University in Atlanta have shown that group size dramatically affects the number of calories consumed. If you are with one other person, you will eat 35 per cent more calories than if you dine alone. In a group of eight, you’re looking at a whopping 90 per cent increase.

Really? If I’m in a group of eight I’m likely to eat twice as much as if I eat alone? That seems spectacularly unlikely. Can someone please do some research for me and report back on whether this is really true? The underlying study here is from 1992, and surely there have been followups since. Thanks!

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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