Athens, Jan 16 (IANS): Soon, a band in your hand may tell you when to pull your hand away from the plate.

Scientists at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, are working on ideas to change the way young people - at risk for obesity - eat, reports Discovery News.

The researchers are now working on developing wearable tech that would be able to understand and monitor chewing.

They could begin by using a well-placed microphone that could report chewing.

“It’s a behavioural issue,” Anastasios Delopoulos, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Aristotle University, was quoted as saying.

According to the report, when a person begins to eat, he typically begins at a high rate and slows down until he feels full.

However, obese people or people at risk for the condition have difficulty feeling full so they tend to eat at a constant high rate.

“The idea is that the sensor would capture chewing noises and be able to interpret the rate of chewing and some information about the texture of the food,” says Delopoulos.

Scientists at Karolinska Institute in Sweden have already measured these rates in patients using a device called mandometer.

The mandometer is essentially a scale that is placed beneath a patient’s plate and records how quickly it lightens as the patient eats.