6 ways food companies trick you to eat more

By Joan Kortbein, CD, CDE, RD, Gundersen Nutrition Therapy

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It can be so hard to control how much food you eat – even when you aren’t hungry. Here are some surprising things that food companies or restaurants do to influence how much you eat:

Packaging. Marketing studies show consumers pay more attention to how tall a package is rather than the how wide it is. It is easy to assume taller packages have more in them so you might find yourself being more careful about controlling your portion when eating out of a tall package.

Size of serving bowls or spoons. The larger the serving bowls and spoons are the more likely you are to take more. It has nothing to do with how hungry you are; you just take more when there is more food available.

Labels. People tend to eat more from packages that are labeled “small.” You can look at two different packages that are the same size, but the one labeled as “small” is the one you are more likely to buy.

Those around us. When people go through a buffet line, they tend to take larger portions of food when the people in front of them are taking larger portions.

Pictures of food on the package. Food manufacturers have found that people tend to eat larger portions when the food picture on the package shows a larger portion. For example, if the picture on the front of a cracker box shows more crackers, we take more crackers.

You want what you see. Sales for ice cream increase thirty percent when the frozen treat is moved from the stainless steel freezer to the glass case where you can see it.