Abstract
Objective: Examine the influence of altering the size of snack food (ie, small vs large cookies) on short-term energy intake.
Methods: First- and sixth-graders (n = 77) participated in a between-subjects experimental design. All participants were offered the same gram weight of cookies during an afternoon tea at their school. For half of the participants, food was cut in 2 to make the small item size. Food intake (number of cookies, gram weight, and energy intake) was examined using ANOVA.
Results: Decreasing the item size of food led to a decrease of 25% in gram weight intake, corresponding to 68 kcal. Appetitive ratings and subject and food characteristics had no moderating effect.
Conclusions and Implications: Reducing the item size of food could prove a useful dietary prevention strategy based on decreased consumption, aimed at countering obesity-promoting eating behaviors favored by the easy availability of large food portions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 251-255 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This article was supported by a grant (2007-2011) to the first author (DM) from the National Research Fund, Luxembourg. We thank the school director for authorizing the study and Stephanie Glaeser, Anne Guillet-Lefort, and Maria Dalal Safa for assistance collecting the data.
Keywords
- dietary strategy
- snack food
- energy intake
- food item size
- cognitive bias
- FOOD-INTAKE
- PORTION SIZE
- OBESITY EPIDEMIC
- OVERWEIGHT
- VALIDITY
- WEIGHT
- HUNGER
- BIAS
