>I read an article last week (which I could find it again) - that the makers of doritos and tostitos (Frito Lay) have had their scientists make the chips so that ingredients actually trick the brain into thinking you're still hungry - even if you are not....so basically what happens is you can devour 5 bags of chips - but your brain is till telling you that you're not satisfied.

I may then qualify as some kind of mind bender. While I generally don't even buy that kind of thing anymore (my favorite snack is just roast (no salt, no oil) peanuts, or raw walnuts or hazelnuts; most of the time, it's just a slice of bread left to dry), when it's open on the table I visit it a few times and then stop. I just don't like having greasy fingers, and no matter what chemistry they apply, my dislike for the taste of the cheap canola oil and the mild tinge of preservatives just turns me off. This unhabit wasn't easy to develop, it took some mental slap on my own wrist from time to time, but now I'd take that bet ("bet that you can't take just one" - I remember that ad), and I'd take it before lunch.

I do visit the fridge maybe 5-6 times between 20:00 and 2:00, but I take one bite of cheese, ham or hard sausage - or one of chocolate, nuts and such which are on the fridge, whatever I like at the moment. The key thing is not to keep any food at hand's reach: I have to get up and walk across.

When we left the US I had 89 kg (probably a consequence of not smoking for a year and amusing my fingers and mouth with food instead), then within a year here, on a greasy diet (mostly bacon, ham, chicken, fat cheese, butter, homemade bread, with nearly zero of industrially processed food, no sodas, no margarine, very little oil) I went down to 80 and stayed there. Presently, been to 83 and coming down again.