Plate recognises unhealthy food

Talking plate warns of unhealthy food London - Arabstoday Doctors have a new weapon in the battle to beat obesity – a talking plate that tells people not to bolt their food. The Mandometer monitors the amount of food leaving the plate and tells users who gobble: ‘Please eat more slowly.’ Now the £1,500 Swedish device is to be used in an NHS initiative to help hundreds of obese families lose weight. It comes in two parts – a scale placed under the plate and a small computer screen showing a graphic of the food that gradually disappears as the user eats. A red line on the screen shows the user’s speed of eating, while a blue line shows a healthy rate. If the user guzzles, the red line angles away from the blue one, warning them to ease off. If the lines deviate too much, the computer voice tells them to slow down. The screen also flashes up messages asking: ‘Are you feeling full yet?’ to remind users to think whether they have had enough. Britain has an increasingly serious obesity problem, with one in four adults and one in seven children classed as obese. But having run a trial scheme, experts believe teaching obese people to eat more slowly will help them know when they are full. Around 600 families with at least one obese parent and child, aged from just five, will be targeted in the project by Bristol University in conjunction with GPs and nurses. A further dozen obese adults and children who carry a mutation of a gene linked to the brain’s ability to recognise feeling full will take part in a smaller study at the Biomedical Research Unit of the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. Professor Julian Hamilton-Shield, who is leading the initiative, said obese children and adolescents using the Mandometer ate from 12 to 15 per cent less per meal at the end of the 12-month trial. Six months after they stopped using the device they still ate less and continued to lose weight. He added: ‘It will be a powerful tool to help families retrain their eating habits.’ But Dr David Haslam, of the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘There are millions of obese kids and while gadgets may work under close supervision, can it help the cases that turn up in GPs’ surgeries?’