How about a high-tech utensil to help keep your new year's resolutions?
One of the latest weight-loss inventions aims to monitor movement from the plate to the mouth.
According to The Wall Street Journal Senior consumer reporter Kelli B. Grant, the $99 HAPIfork, introduced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, tracks how fast consumers eat. By logging the number of forkfuls per meal and per minute, the smart fork helps users understand how much and how fast they consume throughout a given meal.
The fork lights up and vibrates when the diner eats "too fast" - that is, if there are fewer than 10 seconds between forkfuls.The vibration is said to be similar to the buzz of a vibrating cell phone. The fork is also a bit smaller than typical dinner forks.
Dining data can be tracked over time, but the information must be downloaded to a computer after each meal.
The weight-loss contentions are based on the notion of eating less and eating slowly. Studies have found that it takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to alert your brain that you are full, and eating faster means you are likely ton consume more before that happens, says Kari L. Kooi, a registered dietitian at The Methodist Hospital in Houston.
The HAPIfork is said to hit the market by this spring.
Do you think a tool like this could help people shed some extra pounds or develop healthier eating habits?
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