Bring a big fork

Dining out with friends can be a pleasurable thing but it also comes with its perils. Not only is there the social dilemma of how to pay the cheque to be negotiated, but the impact on your waistline from too much eating out can be disastrous. That latter problem however, might be overcome if you bring your own fork with you to the restaurant.

The old saying goes, “Eat softly and carry a big fork” (or was that “Speak softly and carry a big stick”?) and new research has shown that using a big fork when you eat out can lead to you eating less.

The researchers had people attend a popular Italian restaurant and gave half of the subjects small forks while the other half were given big forks. They found that fork size effected how much the people ate. Those given large forks ate significantly less than those with small forks. This was an interesting finding because it contrasts with previous research that found in a laboratory setting people given big forks consumed more than those given small forks. So what is going on here?

Theoretically it comes down to goals and motivation. When people visit a restaurant they have a well-defined goal of satiating their hunger. To achieve this goal they are willing to invest effort and money. Much research has confirmed that the physical signal that you are full often comes with a time lag so you may keep eating beyond satiety if you are distracted or there is no other signal to tell you that you have had enough.

A larger fork means bigger mouthfuls resulting more time and a clearer visual signal by food being removed from the plate, so that it is more obvious when then the goal of satiation has been met. This probably did not hold true in the lab because the participants were not there with the same goal of satisfying their hunger.

The answer to putting on weight from too much dining out then may be to bring a bigger fork. As for the inevitable imbroglio over cheque division, that is far too complex an issue to tackle here.

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