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Go take a look at your dishes for a second. Do your bowls look like you should be using them to mix cookie batter? Should you take your plates out and start a good ultimate frisbee game? Well, if that is the case, you could be on your way to a much bigger waistline.
Do your plates really make that big of a difference?
In a study done by the Journal of the American Medical Association, a bunch of researchers had a Super Bowl party. Talk about a cool study. At this party they had two all-you-can-eat buffets. (This just keeps getting better huh?) They had the same foods at each buffet, filled with typical Super Bowl faire. The only difference was the bowl size. Those bigger bowls, caused the party-goers to take 53% more food and eat 56% more than those smaller bowl eaters.
Don’t ask for seconds
In another study done by Obesity Research they served soup. For the study, they had two groups. One group, they served soup in normal sized bowls. The other group, they served in normal sized bowls as well, with one small difference. They filled those bowls up non-stop, and the eaters just kept on eating. The group without self-filling soup were allowed to get seconds but they just had to ask for some. What did they find? The soup-eaters with a self filling bowls ate an average of 73% more soup.
The bonus result: The eaters who ate from those same bowls also underestimated the calories they ate by 140 calories, whereas those who had to ask for seconds only underestimated by 32 calories.
It’s not just limited to dishes…
In 2004, Brian Wansink grabbed a group of people and sent them home with either a two-pound, one-pound or a half-pound bag of M&M’s. They were also given a videotape and told to watch and just munch away. By the end of the movie, Wansink took the bags back. It was found on average that the people with the small half-pound bag of M&M’s ate an average of 63 M&M’s. Those with the one-pound bag hit around 120 M&M’s. The larger bag, more still. They did the same test with popcorn. Again, the bigger the bag, the more popcorn that was eaten.
So what does it all mean?
With all the studies done, there is a common theme. The more you put in front of you, the more you are going to eat. So think about that next time you supersize your meal or cut an extra large piece of cake. Whatever you get, you are going to probably chow down.
So what can you do about it?
1. Be conscious of every bite – The participants who just ate soup without thinking just kept eating and eating and really didn’t know how much they put away. If you think about every spoonful you put in your mouth, you might not eat as much.
2. Split it up – When I go out to a restaurant I almost always have dessert. Life isn’t worth it without dessert. But it usually gets split into one plate and two forks. I’ll do the same for supper sometimes. Just ask for two plates. (Small ones!)
3. Go shopping – Go grab some cheap plates and bowls and try it out. If you need seconds, go knock yourself out, at least you’ll be a little more conscious of going back to the stove to fill-up.
Images by JunkbyJo, PatrickYeung, and arianacasellato
Comments: What kind of tricks do you use in order to control your portion control?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Remember when I got rid of all those big white dishes and replaced them with the smaller clear ones? Why do you think I did that? The bowls in the first white set we had were so big they could double as serving dishes. If you filled them with cereal you’d empty half a box into one bowl.
Another perk of smaller dishes is that they take up less cupboard space.
I agree that eating from smaller dishes is an awsome trick. I implemented it initially for my family to limit their rice/pasta consumption but it has worked well for all meals. When serving meals my 3yr old always wants ‘more’ food if it’s in a big dish, but with the same amount in a smaller dish he is satasfied with his portion.
You’re bang on Jer!