Here is a book I'm listening to on CD while I'm in the car.  The author is a researcher in the field of food psychology, and the book tells about lots of experiments that he and others have done about the things that influence what and how much we eat.  He's at Cornell right now, and also had a lab at the Univ. of Illinois -- so, it's academic/published in journals kind of research.  Of course, the studies are fascinating.  People given stale popcorn eat it no matter what, and the bigger the container, the more they eat.  People given a free glass of wine with dinner eat more (of the same exact food) and say it tastes better if they are told the wine is from California than if they're told it's from North Dakota -- same exact wine.  I'm only a couple of chapters in, but he seems to feel that we can use these same mindless techniques to eat less, without really noticing.  He's not talking about 10 pounds a week less, but a very gradual less that our bodies won't notice and go into famine mode for, etc.  He says that deprivation diets can't work, and that you have to eat foods you love...  Already I can see that "container" size, or plate size, is probably something he'll recommend...but right now the research is really fun to listen to.  Some of the research makes its way quickly into marketing strategies for food companies.  For example, hands down, consumers will buy lots more of anything that's marketed 10 for $5, or 3 for $12 or whatever...no matter what the combination.  And he says that even if we say it doesn't affect us, it affect everybody.  So, more on this topic later!