Scientists find new hack to help you stop overeating: study

The secret to eating less may be all in how you plate it.

Chinese scientists believe a hack to reduce food consumption, and consequently drop pounds, is all about spreading your food out on your plate.

The study published Monday found that cutting food into small pieces and scattering them across a dish can actually trick your brain into thinking you’re eating much more.

While previous research determined that cutting food can help with weight loss, experts from the Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an claim that arranging those small bits across a plate with gaps in between can help “individuals to make more rational portion size decisions.”

According to the study, published in the April 2023 issue of the journal Food Quality and Preference, this is because most people’s meals are dictated by portion-size, rather than how full they feel.

Experts surveyed 34 participants and made them look at 60 pictures of chocolate bars, ranging from 60 to 200 grams and cut into a variety of pieces.

Participants were shown multiple photos of a 100-gram chocolate bar, each displaying the candy split between nine to 16 pieces. Different images showed the chocolate pieces bunched together on a plate while others were spread apart with spaces in between.

Even though all of the chocolate was the same amount, the experience found that the participants thought 16 pieces of chocolate was a larger portion than the nine-piece sample.

The team also found that participants assumed there was more chocolate when the pieces were spread out, even though the weight was exactly the same.

“More overall portion size is perceived when the units are separated than gathered,” the researchers said.

They chalked up the notion that spreading out food on a plate could be perceived as more thanks to the white space on the plate.

Researchers concluded that cutting food up into smaller pieces and spreading the chunks out on a plate makes it easier to avoid overeating.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 41.9% of the adult population in the U.S. are obese. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, which are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death.