Robinson, E. and Kersbergen, I. orcid.org/0000-0002-8799-8963 (2018) Portion size and later food intake : evidence on the “normalizing” effect of reducing food portion sizes. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 107 (4). pp. 640-646. ISSN 0002-9165
Abstract
Background
Historical increases in the size of commercially available food products have been linked to the emergence of a worldwide obesity crisis. Although the acute effect that portion size has on food intake is well established, the effect that exposure to smaller portion sizes has on future portion size selection has not been examined.
Objective
We tested whether reducing a food portion size “renormalizes” perceptions of what constitutes a normal amount of that food to eat and results in people selecting and consuming smaller portions of that food in the future.
Design
Across 3 experiments, participants were served a larger or smaller portion of food. In experiments 1 and 2, participants selected and consumed a portion of that food 24 h later. In experiment 3, participants reported on their preferred ideal portion size of that food after 1 wk.
Results
The consumption of a smaller, as opposed to a larger, portion size of a food resulted in participants believing a “normal”-sized portion was smaller (experiments 1–3, P ≤ 0.001), consuming less of that food 1 d later (experiments 1–2, P ≤ 0.003), and displaying a tendency toward choosing a smaller ideal portion of that food 1 wk later (experiment 3, P = 0.07), although the latter finding was not significant.
Conclusion
Because consumer preferences appear to be driven by environmental influences, reducing food portion sizes may recalibrate perceptions of what constitutes a “normal” amount of food to eat and, in doing so, decrease how much consumers choose to eat. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03241576.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 American Society for Nutrition.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | portion size; food environment; eating behavior; nudging; energy intake; consumer preference |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 15 Aug 2019 10:52 |
Last Modified: | 15 Aug 2019 10:52 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/ajcn/nqy013 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:149759 |