Want To Lose More Weight? Use a Bigger Fork, Scientists Say
|Flickr User Ed Townend|
So apparently using bigger plates will make you fat; but using a bigger fork will slim you down. The latter is the conclusion a new study has come to. Researchers at the University of Utah conducted their experiment at a chosen Italian restaurant somewhere, I would guess, near the University of Utah.
They provided two sets of forks to different sets of diners. One was bigger fork; one was smaller fork. The big fork held 20% more food and the smaller one held 20% less food than the typical fork the restaurant used. Then they observed what was left on the diners plates after they were done.
When the weight of the dishes before and after service were measured, it was discovered that those eaten with bigger forks had significantly more food left over than those where smaller forks were used.
So what does this tell the researchers? They theorize the following:
"In sum, we find that when people have a well-defined hunger goal to satisfy and put forth effort to reach the goal, they consume more from a small fork rather than from a large fork. The bite size becomes the medium that helps them satisfy their goal and also influences the quantity consumed. The small fork gives a feeling that they are not making much progress in satiating their hunger, which results in more consumption compared to when they have a large fork."No wonder ice cream tastes better from those little sample spoons.
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