Portion-Size Label Influences Ingestion Intake
打上分量大小标签会影响人们的进食量
The mayor of New York famously tried to ban super-sized sodas. But instead of legislating a drink’s volume, maybe we should change its name. Because a new study shows that the words we use to describe portion size affect how much we actually consume. The findings are in the journal Health Economics.
纽约市长因试图禁止超大号苏打水而出名。但是我们可以选择立法以外的方法,给饮料改个名字就行。因为最新研究显示我们用来描述分量大小的用词会影响进食量。研究成果发表在《健康经济学》杂志上。
As portion sizes at many restaurants grow larger, so do our waistlines. Of course, no one says we have to finish that three-quarter pound burger or chug an entire Big Gulp. But what determines when we lay down the fork and push away from the table?
随着许多餐馆分量的增加,我们的腰围也随着变粗了。当然,没人逼我们去吃3/4磅的汉堡或者吞下一整桶Big Gulp。但是什么能让我们放下食物,离开餐桌呢?
To find out, researchers led by Brian Wansink of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab served up some spaghetti. Some volunteers received a portion labeled “regular,” others got a dish described as “double size.” Although both plates contained the same amount of pasta, people ate more when they thought their serving size was normal. Participants who thought they’d gotten the piggy-sized portion left 10 times more food on their plates.
为了找到答案,研究人员在康奈尔食物与品牌实验室Brian Wansink的带领下给测试者端上了一些意大利面。一些测试者拿到的是写着正常量的,而另一些拿到的是写着双倍量的。尽管盘子的意大利面一样多,吃的是正常量的实验者吃的更多。而吃的是写着双倍量的实验者比前者剩下超过十倍的食物。
So if a big beverage were called, say, Double the Size of your Stomach," maybe we’d think twice about draining every last drop.
所以,要是一种打份饮料叫“两个你胃大”的话,或许我们就三思而后饮了。
—Karen Hopkin