First Calories, Then Portion Size -- Now Menu Wording
OK. So there are the calories we have to count. The fat and sodium content. The portion size. And now a new study is telling us we have to pay attention to how the menu is worded because that affects our portion size. Can't we just eat a meal and enjoy it anymore?! Newswise.com reports that a new study out of Cornell University says that the way restaurants describe a menu item makes us eat more, or less. Consumers "use such labels to dictate how much food they think is a 'normal' portion, and then adjust their intake accordingly," according to the story. "People are willing to pay more for a portion that sounds larger, but they also are apt to eat more of an enormous portion if they believe it is ‘regular’ to do so,” newswise.com quotes David R. Just, associate professor at Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics. Just conducted the study with Brian Wansink, professor of marketing at Cornell. Both authors are affiliated with the Cornell Food...