Effects of snack portion size on anticipated and experienced hunger, eating enjoyment, and perceived healthiness among children

Abstract

Background Large portion sizes encourage overconsumption. Prior studies suggest that this may be due to errors in anticipating the effects of portion size, although the studies were limited to adults and energy-dense foods. Objective Our aim was to investigate potential anticipation errors related to the effects of portion size on hunger, eating enjoyment, and healthiness ratings among 8-to-11-year-old children, for snacks differing in energy density and healthiness perception, and as a function of initial hunger. Methods In a within-subject design, 83 children aged 8 to 11 years old were first asked to anticipate how much they would enjoy, how hungry they would feel after eating, and how healthy it would be to eat a recommended serving size, a 50% larger portion, and a 125% larger portion of brownie or applesauce. Over six subsequent sessions, the children were asked to eat all of each of these portions and then rate their post-intake enjoyment, residual hunger, and healthiness perceptions. We also measured hunger at the beginning of each session. Results For both snacks, larger portions reduced anticipated and experienced residual hunger similarly. In contrast, larger portions increased anticipated but not experienced eating enjoyment for both snacks; although larger portions increased anticipated and experienced enjoyment ratings among extremely hungry children. All children under-anticipated how much they would enjoy the smaller portion sizes. Healthiness ratings were unaffected by portion size for both snacks but differed across foods (applesauce vs. brownie). Conclusions Children anticipate the effects of portion size on hunger change accurately, overestimate the effects of portion size on eating enjoyment, and rate food healthiness on food type and not portion size. Helping children better anticipate the enjoyment from smaller (recommended) portion sizes and understand that food quantity, not just quality, matters for healthy eating may be a solution to improve portion control.

Effects of Apple Form on Energy Intake During a Mid-Afternoon Snack: A Preload Paradigm Study in School-Aged Children

“…My stomach is truly really empty and is rumbling at lot” [see ( 25 , 32 ) for details]. Then, they ate the apple preload entirely and rated their liking on a dedicated child-tailored 10-cm VAS punctuated by smileys [see ( 25 , 32 )] and evaluated again their level of hunger ( Figure 1 ). After this, and for 10 min that were strictly controlled, they played an online game based on the principle of “where's Wally?”.…”

Downsizing by design – Investigating acceptance, choice and willingness to pay for portion control design concepts

“…In preschool children, a randomised control trial offering smaller portion sizes or swapping out HED items for fruits and vegetables demonstrated that this strategy was well accepted and produced significant benefits to the diets of children (Reale et al, 2018). However, for older children (8-11 yr) offering smaller sized apple sauce and brownies was less acceptable than large portions (Schwartz et al (2020). Unlike adults (Cornil & Chandon, 2016) children appear to appreciate quantity over quality and shifting that focus is likely to be challenging.…”

Does portion size matter? Dynamic changes in hedonic and emotional responses to foods varying in portion size

“…Two recent studies investigated how consumers, both children and adults, anticipate the effects of portion size reductions on hunger change and eating enjoyment (Haynes et al, 2020;Schwartz et al, 2020). Schwartz and colleagues (2020) found that children anticipate the effects of smaller versus larger portion sizes on residual hunger accurately, but overestimate the effects of portion size on eating enjoyment, in the sense that larger portions increased anticipated but not experienced eating enjoyment.…”