By: Karolina Starczak

Aug 21, 2009

Throughout the decades dishware has gotten bigger and bigger to meet the demands of our growing appetites. Of course, expanding dishes lead to expanding waistlines or at least that’s what researchers believe in an article published in the July issue of Trends in Food Science & Technology.

In the article, researchers addressed different factors that influence fullness and how much we eat. Most of the factors such as oversized restaurant portions may not come as a surprise, but can the size of our dishes really trick us into overeating? Sadly, the answer is yes. A gargantuan pasta bowl can render us useless against fighting portion distortion.

It may be hard to believe that something as innocent as a plate can trick us into overeating, but dishes have gotten consistently bigger. In fact according to a July 2007 article in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, plates have grown in size by 36 percent since 1960. That’s about a third more space for us to fill with extra calories!

If you feel deceived by your dishware, don’t fret—even trained professionals have a hard time choosing healthy portions when given oversized dishes. A study featured in the September 2007 issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that when nutrition experts were given large bowls, they ate 31 percent more food without even being aware of it. Then when the experts were given bigger spoons their servings went up by 14.5 percent.

I’m sure you are wondering why our dishes have so much power over our portions and the answer is simple—consumption norms. The size of our dishes helps us estimate what a normal portion should be, so if we are used to filling a dish halfway, we will do so despite the size of the dish. The bigger the dishware the more we will eat and the more we will underestimate the calories in our oversized portions.

Since dumping our not so dainty dinnerware is not really a practical solution, here are three ways to avoid excess calories:

1. Eat the biggest meals of the day on a seven inch plate. The smaller plate will not only make the amount of food seem like more, but it will make it easier to choose smaller portions.
2. When drinking any beverage with calories choose tall, slender glasses instead of short, wide glasses. In a 2003 study in the Journal of Consumer Research, children were shown to consume 74 percent more calories from juice or a soft drink in a short wide glass than in a tall, slender one.
3. Try a product such as the Portion Plate. It’s a great way to become familiar with proper portions, without having to give up any favorite foods.

What tricks do you use to avoid large portions?

More on Portions
Portion Distortion
The Diet Plate
Secret to Eating Satisfaction