When fighting fat, and trying to eat healthily, changing your eating environment is easier than changing your mind. A research team in the US has set about uncovering the hidden persuaders in our homes that trick us into overeating – things like serving spoons, cupboards and colours. But most of these tempters can also be reversed to make us slimmer and healthier. Although there are many solutions to mindless eating, most of them will go undiscovered because if we have a problem with our diet, we tend to focus on food itself, not on our surroundings. All that requires willpower, which is hard work and has to last a lifetime to be truly successful. Research has found subtle ways to change our homes, workplaces, schools, or modify our approach to restaurant dining and grocery shopping, so we mindlessly eat less instead of eating more. If we want to automatically eat better, we do not need to change our minds, we have to optimise our surroundings.