Gaby
Researchers from Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an, China, have unveiled a new weight loss strategy. During their study, scientists showed volunteers photographs of food items that weighed the same. However, some images featured whole pieces, while others displayed them cut into smaller portions. Participants reported that the cut portions appeared larger. The research team believes that slicing food into smaller pieces and spreading them out on a plate can help people eat less, ultimately leading to weight loss.
How the Study Was Conducted
The experiment that led to this discovery involved 34 volunteers, all around 20 years old, as reported by the Daily Mail. The researchers asked them to view 60 photographs of chocolate bars weighing between 60 and 200 grams. The various portions were cut into different numbers of pieces. For instance, in six images, 100-gram bars were divided into 9 to 16 fragments. The pieces were either piled together, resembling a whole bar, or spread out on the plate a few centimeters apart.
Participants were tasked with guessing the weight of each portion. The results surprised the scientists. Volunteers, for example, claimed that a 100-gram bar divided into 16 pieces weighed more than the same bar divided into just 9 pieces.
In an article for the journal Food Quality and Preference, the team summarized that a greater number of pieces on a plate leads people to perceive it as a larger portion size.
The scientists suggested that this phenomenon might be linked to something called “contour integration.” This effect causes individuals to subconsciously add the empty spaces on the plate to the overall size of the portion.
According to the researchers, this represents a new way of eating that allows individuals to consume less while still feeling full and losing weight.
The Analogy with the Red Plate Effect
The team noted that this life hack operates on the same principle as the well-known trick involving red plates. Over a decade ago, Professor Charles Spence from the University of Oxford discovered this concept. He is also credited with founding the new field of gastrophysics, which studies how our perceptions of food, including enjoyment, are formed not in the mouth but in the brain. Our eating behavior is influenced by all of our senses.
Thus, Charles Spence argued that red plates signal danger, subconsciously prompting us to eat less. This theory gained traction among diet enthusiasts and dishware sellers alike, and serving food on red plates has become one of the trendy innovations promoted online.
