Japanese Diet Glasses Are a Real-Life ‘See-Food’ Diet

Japanese diet glasses are one of the newest innovations in weight-loss tips, aids and boosters- relying on our sense of sight to inhibit food intake.

The diet glasses out of Japan are, on one hand, a totally risk-free way to eat less and lose weight. They are, however, a bit silly.

Remember when Tammy got her jaw wired shut on The Real World in order to stop shoving food in it? The Japanese diet glasses are a similar physical trick to get you to eat less, except obviously, they work in a slightly different way.

(However, a totally silly mechanism to eat less is still totally visible to everyone with whom you are dining and everyone in the general vicinity, which basically is like a sign saying “yes, I have to wear these dumb glasses to trick myself because I have a problem with pastries.”)

Researchers at the University of Tokyo developed the Japanese diet glasses as a drug-free way to get people trying to eat less to perceive meals as larger and more satisfying when wearing the devices. An Aussie news source says:

“On one device goggle-mounted cameras send images to a computer, which magnifies the apparent size of the biscuit in the image it displays to the wearer while keeping his hand the same size, making the snack appear larger than it actually is… In experiments, volunteers consumed nearly 10 per cent less when the biscuits they were eating appeared 50 per cent bigger.”

So even when we think we’re getting 50% more food, we still only reduce our intake of cookies by 10%. Of the technology behind the Japanese diet glasses and the way they work, one researcher said reality “is in your mind.”