Eat Too Much Or Too Fast? A Vibrating Fork Might Help

Interesting gadgets abound at Las Vegas’ annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

Case in point: HAPIfork–an eating utensil that will let you know loud and clear when you’re eating too fast or too much.

Magical fork

The electronic HAPIfork can gauge every time you bring the fork from your food to your mouth, and it will politely warn you with flashing lights when you’re eating faster than what’s considered healthy. It’s been touted to help those who have problems overeating or need a nudge being mindful of how much they’re eating .

Benefits

Besides helping the eater bring more awareness to meal times, makers of the HAPIfork say that eating slower has been associated with many health benefits, including weight loss, improved digestion and a decrease in gastric reflux. Eating slowly may also prevent the stomach from expanding, which happens during binge eating or overeating episodes.

A 2004 North American Association for the Study of Obesity study also found that eating more slowly helps people eat less.

Considerations

The HAPIfork website notes that a “reasonable pace” for eating is using a fork 60 to 75 times during a 20- to 30-minute meal. The product measures how long you take to eat your meal, and data can be uploaded to an app that will help you track your meals and eating objectives.

The HAPIfork is set to be released to the general public in Q3 of this year. Its retail value will be $99.

Source: HAPILabs.com, Care2