'Enlarged' Foods Trick Your Stomach, Study Says
First research showed that the color of your food can trick your stomach; now, it's the size of your food: A new study shows that the size of the food you eat can determine how much you eat.
University of Tokoyo researchers tested out glasses with video cameras that manipulated the size of a cookie participants were asked to eat. While the glasses kept the size of the subjects' hands the same, the cookies were made bigger by 50 percent. When diners held the "larger" cookies, they ate about 10 percent less compared to the amount they ate without the glasses.
Similarly, the researchers tested out the reverse: by reducing the size of the cookie by one-third, the diners ate about 15 percent more. The new imaging technology could shape future diets, but in the meantime, the research may show that bigger foods equal a smaller appetite. So maybe make those peanut butter cookies a bit larger the next time you bake.