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February 8th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) — Ballooning portion sizes
have shouldered some of the blame for America’s obesity epidemic.
However, a new study suggests that, when asked, many restaurant patrons
will readily “downsize” their meal.
When offered the choice, even without a price cut, many customers opted
for less food instead of more, the study found.
“We know that restaurant meals have grown in size in the last 20 years,
and we had some evidence that many restaurant goers thought that
restaurant meals were too large,” said researcher Jason Riis, an assistant
professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School in
Boston.
“So we had the intuition that if we asked people to take smaller
portions, even for no discount, they would be willing to do that, and
that’s in fact what we found,” he said.
The smaller portion was offered on a side dish, which is often made
larger to give the appearance of value, Riis said.
“It’s very cheap for restaurants to add on a little bit more food. The
ingredients are not the bulk of their costs. Super-sizing is an
inexpensive way to increase a perception of value,” he explained.
“Many people know they eat too much,” Riis added.
But people, by and large, have no willpower, he noted. “Once food is on
our plate, we eat it; by then it’s too late for self-control. We have got
to work harder to get the right amount of food on our plates. The customer
bears some responsibility for this, but restaurants also bear some
responsibility,” Riis said.
Restaurants can cut back portions and people can ask for smaller
portions as well. “Don’t be afraid to ask for right size portions,” he
suggested.
The report was published in the Feb. 8 online edition of Health
Affairs.
For the study, Riis’ team had waiters in a Chinese fast-food restaurant
offer customers half portions of rice or noodles, sometimes for less money
but other times with no price break.
The investigators found that 14 percent to 33 percent of customers went
for the downsizing offer, whether or not they were given a discount of 25
cents.
Most people did not order more food to make up for the smaller portion.
On average, smaller portions cut more than 200 calories from the meal,
Riis said.
Downsizing also didn’t change how much food was left on the plate, so
there were actual calories saved, the researchers noted.
In addition, having calorie counts on the menu didn’t make a difference
in customer choices. “If anything, the downsizing offer was less effective
in changing customers’ ordering patterns with the calorie-labeling
present,” the researchers said.
Samantha Heller, a dietitian, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and
clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin
Hospital in Derby, Conn., commented that “research suggests that patrons
will eat healthy foods more often if they are featured prominently on the
menu.”
And, she added, “Eating a few hundred calories less per day can add up
to significant weight loss over time. Let’s use the current study to kick
off a new restaurant trend; helping people to help themselves by simply
featuring healthy foods on menus and asking patrons if they want smaller
portions.”
Commenting on the study, Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention
Research Center at Yale School of Medicine, said that “it’s refreshing to
see that common sense can be reactivated with a simple nudge — asking
people if they might prefer to eat less.
“The question forces a conscious decision to replace what has become
almost automatic behavior — and the results look promising. Thinking
about food portion before ordering looks to be very good food for
thought,” Katz said.
More information
For more on healthy dining, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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