The Google Diet: How to Use Google's Cafeteria Tricks to Lose Weight

Find out how Google made its employees healthier and how you can use those same diet tips to lose weight and make healthier food choices at home.

Google is on a mission and it has nothing to do with searching the Web or social networking. This tech giant is dedicated to helping its employees make better food choices. Not surprisingly, its philosophy is based on the latest behavioral research (much of it out of Cornell University) that finds that if you gently steer people toward healthy eats, they’ll naturally choose them. And Google has measured the results. “Removing all bad foods and only offering healthy foods may sound like a good idea but it only alienates employees, causing backlash,” says David Just, Ph.D., an associate professor of behavioral economics at Cornell University. “You’ll have much more success if you subtly nudge them in the right direction instead.” Read on to see how Google set up its cafeterias to encourage healthy eating and how you can create your own diet-friendly kitchen at home.

— Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D.

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