This new device has been created to prevent consumers from bolting down their food, and should this happen tells users to ‘please eat more slowly’.
The innovation, designed by Swedish scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, costs £1,500 and is to be used in hospitals as a healthy eating initiative for overweight families.
I find it difficult to believe that the NHS is investing so much capital in a product that’s being named the ‘new weapon to fight obesity’, and I’ve seen similar products (albeit not as sophisticated) as far back as 2006, with very limited results.
For example, Ukrainan Dr Hryhory Chausovsky invented the The Smart Plate, which is a normal-sized dish that has embedded weight sensors that track how much food you’ve piled on to it, and asks ‘Where is your willpower?’ if you pile too much food onto it in one serving.
Other interesting inventions followed, including a belt with an attached alarm which is set off should the consumer expand their waistline to a particular cut-off point.
Since this time, the obesity epidemic has gotten worse. It’s shocking to see that it may be used for overweight patients in hospitals during their stay. I can’t help but wonder that the NHS should be applying more focus towards trying to increase the amount of calories that the elderly and frail are failing to consume, and getting dangerously ill as a result.
Call me cynical, but if people who are struggling to lose weight need a plate to tell them when to stop eating, I have big concerns for the success of the NHS’ future plans to combat the ever worsening obesity crisis.
This device may be a useful tool for children who have been fed large quantities of food from a young age and are unaware of a normal portion size, but surely, as adults, a £1,500 talking plate is just one step too far.
The Mandometer has come at a time when, in the same week, we’ve been told pizza is a vegetable, and EU officials have concluded that there is no evidence to prove the fact that drinking water can prevent dehydration.
Rebecca is editorial assistant of FoodBev.com. You can contact her here, or read her blog here.
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