Notes
This book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical or dietary advice, and it's no substitute for a GP, a dietitian or an eating disorder service that knows you. The NHS guidance I mention is for England as I found it in September 2026. The book makes no claim about weight.
I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 25 and 26. The sofa, the sharing bag, the programme, the bag in the car door and the tub of nuts are invented. No study from the laboratory of Brian Wansink is used in this book, because of the retractions and data problems associated with that work.
Before you start. Beat is the UK eating disorder charity. The description of what to look for is in plain words and isn't a diagnostic list.
Chapter 3. Geier, Rozin and Doros, "Unit bias: a new heuristic that helps explain the effect of portion size on food intake", Psychological Science 17, 2006, pages 521 to 525. Used in the earlier book in this series on eating past full. The application to a sharing bag is mine.
Chapter 4. Robinson, Aveyard, Daley, Jolly, Lewis, Lycett and Higgs, "Eating attentively: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of food intake memory and awareness on eating", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 97, 2013, pages 728 to 742. Twenty-four studies. The claim that a bag sends no signal but the bottom is mine.
Chapter 5. Zlatevska, Dubelaar and Holden, "Sizing up the effect of portion size on consumption: a meta-analytic review", Journal of Marketing 78, 2014, pages 140 to 154. The 35 per cent figure is for a doubling of portion size, on average. Hollands and colleagues, "Portion, package or tableware size for changing selection and consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco", Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2015, CD011045, as verified for the earlier book on eating past full. The arithmetic for bag sizes is mine and the gram figures are approximate.
Chapter 6. Rolls, Van Duijvenvoorde and Rolls, "Pleasantness changes and food intake in a varied four-course meal", Appetite 5, 1984, pages 337 to 348, and Hetherington, Rolls and Burley, "The time course of sensory-specific satiety", Appetite 12, 1989, pages 57 to 68, both as verified for the earlier book on eating past full. The first report of sensory-specific satiety is Rolls, Rolls, Rowe and Sweeney, Physiology and Behavior 27, 1981, pages 137 to 142, for which no summary was available. The application to a bag is mine.
Chapter 7. Robinson and colleagues as above. Hetherington, Anderson, Norton and Newson, "Situational effects on meal intake: a comparison of eating alone and eating with others", Physiology and Behavior 88, 2006, pages 498 to 505. Thirty-seven people, four lunches, which the chapter says is small. Zlatevska and colleagues as above.
Chapter 8. Marchiori, Papies and Klein, "The portion size effect on food intake: an anchoring and adjustment process?", Appetite 81, 2014, pages 108 to 115. Hypothetical eating situations, which the chapter says. Cheema and Soman, "The effect of partitions on controlling consumption", Journal of Marketing Research 45, 2008, pages 665 to 675. Chocolates in the first study. The claim that will against an anchor loses is mine.
Chapter 12. Higgs, "Memory for recent eating and its influence on subsequent food intake", Appetite 39, 2002, pages 159 to 166. Women who weren't dieting. Robinson and colleagues as above.
Chapter 13. The earlier book on diets and the write-off is Breakfast isn't the problem.
Chapter 16. Cheema and Soman as above, for partitions and habituation.
Chapter 17. Cheema and Soman as above. The arithmetic is mine.
Chapter 18. The NHS pages "How does sugar in our diet affect our health" and "8 tips for healthy eating", for the 30 gram guide and the labelling thresholds. Robinson and colleagues as above, for later intake. The rest is mine.
Chapter 21. Zlatevska and colleagues, and Cheema and Soman, as above.
Chapter 22. Robinson and colleagues, and Rolls and colleagues, as above.
Chapter 23. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule hasn't been tested as a package, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.
Chapter 24. The NHS sugar page as above. Cheema and Soman as above. The earlier books on eating for a feeling are Eat when you're hungry and The feeling will pass without help. Beat as above.