ITHACA, N.Y., July 25 (UPI) -- It may be that the mega-size portions of many U.S. meals and snacks may be the fault of mega-size bowls and spoons, a study finds.
"Just doubling the size of someone's bowl increased how much people took by 31 percent," said lead author Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University. "We also saw that giving people a scoop that was a little bit larger increased things by about 14.5 percent."
Wansink invited 85 food and nutrition experts to an ice cream social to celebrate a colleague's achievement, and each was randomly handed either 17-ounce or 34-ounce bowls and provided either 2-ounce or 3-ounce serving scoops. The guests scooped out the ice cream themselves.
Each diner was asked to estimate how much ice cream and calories they had selected. Although they were mostly nutrition experts, those with the large spoons and bowls took more ice cream.
"The fact that even they end up being tripped up by these cues just helps to show how ubiquitous and how subversive these illusions can be," said Wansink.
The study appears in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
