I’ve heard about the Paradox of Choice in relation to healthy eating before.  (I think it was on an Alan Alda-Narrated Scientific American Frontiers show about fat.)  This post on Starling Fitness does a great job of breaking down the concept as it relates to healthy eating (and, by that I mean both substance AND quantity.)

Coincidentally, I was actually thinking about this last night when I was going for the second, different-flavored, serving of light ice cream.  If I’d had only one flavor of ice cream in the house, one bowl would have been enough.

Think about this the next time you go to Costco or the grocery store– If you keep 8 different kinds of snacks in the house, you are likely to snack more because there are more options.  And, you’ll be less satisfied with choosing, say, an apple when you could have had a multigrain whatever-the-hell or a non-fat whosawhatzit, and that lack of satisfaction is likely to drive you back to the kitchen later for the snack you left behind.  (Yes, the Paradox of Choice applies to packing on calories in the form of “healthy snacks” as well.)

The Paradox also relates to other choices as well.  Whenever I find a new apartment, I am usually in love with the place- until my daily continued search of craigslist turns up something that might have been better.  Hell, even Match.com has that insufferable “It’s OK to Look” campaign going on right now.  It is nearly impossible to focus in on the things that are important to us and be satisfied with our choices when we are buried in an avalanche of options.