Normal eating an easy guest doth make

Have you ever thought about the centrality of meals to all of life? Even important business meetings sometimes center around coffee and donuts, or a restaurant meal.

When we were all dieting, back in the bad old days, what made us think we could extract food from the rest of our lives? Eat different foods from those around us? Weigh and measure it? What were we thinking?

It's a mistake to vilify the importance of food. There's no getting away from eating as a social activity, and there's no need to, either.

The only diet tool I've ever seen that really works in all settings is eating small amounts and stopping when eighty percent full.

No matter where you are, you can do that. Yes I know that at your Italian mother-in-law's house, there's some pressure to eat big amounts, but you can learn to push food around on your plate, break the big wad of Italian bread in half, and cover everything with a napkin.

When questioned, say, "It was delicious. But I just couldn't eat that much." Then resist the pressure. (A nod to Gwen Shamblin for this suggestion.)

Sometimes it's other people that have to get over it, not you. But at least you're not insisting on skim milk for your coffee or sugar-free shrimp cocktail sauce. In other words, of all the diet demands made on dinner hosts nowadays, requiring only small portions is the kindest of them.

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