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Can the color and size of a dish affect how much you eat?

Eric Barker
January 20, 2012

When we use bigger plates we almost inevitably eat more. When the color of the food contrasts with the color of the plate we almost always eat less.

Via Eurekalert:

“The bigger your dinnerware, the bigger your portion. If you use larger plates, you could end up serving 9 percent to 31 percent more than you typically would,” write authors Koert van Ittersum (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Brian Wansink (Cornell University). The average size of dinner plates has increased by almost 23 percent from since 1900, the authors point out, and eating only 50 more calories a day could result in a five-pound weight gain each year.

And:

Follow-up experiments showed that the “bowl bias” is nearly impossible to eliminate with education, awareness, or practice. During two summer camps, larger bowls led people to overserve up to 31 percent more than normal.

One of the few ways to reduce bowl bias is through colorââsuch as changing the color of a tablecloth or a plate. In a field study, participants were asked to serve white-sauce or red-sauce pasta on either a large white or a large red plate. On average, changing the color of the plate so it was high contrast reduced how much people served by 21 percent, and changing the color of the tablecloth reduced how much people served by 10 percent.

I’ve posted more about Wansink’s fascinating food behavior research here.

His book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think is excellent.

TheRedArchive is an archive of Red Pill content, including various subreddits and blogs. This post has been archived from the blog bakadesuyo.

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Post Information
Title Can the color and size of a dish affect how much you eat?
Author Eric Barker
Date January 20, 2012 6:06 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Blog bakadesuyo
Archive Link https://theredarchive.com/blog/bakadesuyo/can-the-color-and-size-of-a-dish-affect-how-much.14754
https://theredarchive.com/blog/14754
Original Link https://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/01/can-the-color-and-size-of-a-dish-affect-how-m/
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