Big Bites Make Us Eat Less!

When thinking about overeating, one of the first images that most likely come to mind are that of a person consuming an oversized meal or making a second or third trip to the buffet. But overeating is more than an event and is actually intimately tied to psycho-physiological factors. The behaviors that characterize overeating patterns are multifactorial and include not only the portion size but also environmental factors such as the plate size. For obese individuals, hormones will also have an effect on feeding patterns. In a recent research study, these factors were analyzed even more specifically by examining the influence of fork size (and indirectly the bite size) on the amount of food consumed. In order to test this potential influencing factor, the whole study was conducted in a restaurant due to the difficulty in replicating real life scenarios in a lab setting. The author explained that “people visit the restaurants with a well-defined goal of satiating their hunger, and in this process they invest effort and resources (e.g., time, money, and choices of food and location) to satisfy their goal in the best possible manner.” During the study, the participants ate two lunches and two dinners using a large fork that held 20% more food and a small fork that held 20% less food than a regular restaurant fork. After controlling for factors that may influence the amount of food consumed (initial food served, food price, meal occasion -lunch vs. dinner, appetizer ordering and alcohol consumption), it was found that in a restaurant setting, diners consumed more food from a smaller rather than from a larger fork.

Although these results seem to be contradictory to the effects of the portion size on food consumption, where large portion sizes are related to overeating behaviors, the fork size may affect the eating patterns when the portion size is large. Analyzing the bite size and the portion size showed that people who received a large serving of food ate more with small forks while when serving small size portions there was no differences in using a small or large fork. The possible explanation for the interaction between fork size and initial quantity of food was supported by a goal-based explanation. The authors explained that “eating a large quantity of food with a small fork does not give the diners a feeling that they are making much progress in satisfying their hunger, while a large fork gives them a feeling of goal progress.” These factors were proven to be important in a follow-up trial in a lab environment where it was found that when removing the goal based factors, the influence of fork size on consumption reversed, indicating that people using large forks tend to leave less food in their plate.

As a conclusion of these findings, the use of fork size to manage food consumption when people have a well-defined hunger satiation goal is a tool that should be taken into consideration. Also it is clear that the more internal cues about the appropriate quantity of food to be consumed that people have, the less dependency on the external cues such as fork size and initial quantity of food. The take home message speaks to food serving proportion. When smaller portions are accompanied by smaller serving implements the total consumption goes down. Smaller forks and spoons, bowls, plates and cups can all impact food consumption when the serving sizes are made appropriate. (Journal of Consumer Research, 2011)