According to a new research, when people are served in large quantity or when they use larger items of tableware, then they consume more food or non-alcoholic drinks and eliminating this could reduce energy intake.
The research carried out by the University of Cambridge explained that overeating increases the risks of heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers, which are among the leading causes of ill health and premature death.
The researchers observed the influence of portion, package and tableware size on food consumption and noticed that peope lconsistently consumed more food and drink when offered larger-sized portions, packages or tableware than when offered smaller-sized versions and studying this they suggested that if sustained reductions in exposure to large sizes could be achieved across the whole diet, this could reduce average daily energy consumed from food.
Dr Gareth Hollands, who co-led the study, mentioned that it’s obvious that the larger the portion size, the more people eat, but before their research the overall picture was unclear.
The researchers highlight a range of potential actions that could be taken to reduce the size, availability or appeal of larger-sized portions, packages and tableware, including upper-limits on serving sizes of energy-dense foods and drinks, or on the sizes of crockery, cutlery and glasses provided for use in their consumption, by placing larger portion sizes further away from purchasers to make them less accessible and demarcating single portion sizes in packaging through wrapping or a visual cue.
The research is published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.