Serving food in a separated style influences calorie estimates and eating behavior

Abstract

This article aims to understand how and why a separated serving style of food (i.e., serving foods based on ingredient while maintaining their separation with no sides touching on a plate) influences calorie estimates and eating behavior. Results from two studies show that participants significantly underestimate the calorie content of their food and decrease food consumption in a separated (vs. mixed) serving style. Separate‐style foodservice calls attention to the act of eating and serves as a tool to facilitate weight management. In our studies, participants demonstrated a belief that separated (vs. mixed) food serving has the capacity to affect weight (rather than health attributes) and thereby influences calorie estimates. Even with unhealthy (e.g., fried snacks) foods, the separated serving style still makes the food appear less caloric, and increases self‐monitoring. In other words, the self‐monitoring that results from the serving of foods separately creates an anchoring effect, which decreases overall food consumption. This circumstance suggests that the visual arrangement of food intake has potential implications for food consumption and weight management. Practical applications In an era of increasing obesity and the erosion of healthy eating habits, it is important to identify factors that can help people maintain both a healthier weight and diet. Our findings are particularly concerned with food serving design. Given that the separate intake of foods can lower one's caloric estimates of the serving, marketing personnel would do well to formulate strategies with this in mind. These findings further emphasize the potential impact of a visual separation of foods on consumers' eating behavior. The separated serving style could be a way of increasing self‐monitoring in order to control one's food intake. While previous research supports children's preference for food arranged in a separated serving style to allow for personal eating habits, no study has yet examined the effects (e.g., food evaluation and eating behavior) of a separated serving style among adults. Especially for dieters, adults tend to arrange their meals in a separated serving style. With preexisting evidence of the positive effects of a separate serving style in mind, this article expands the application of this food style to devise an effective strategy for an active and consistent reduction of unhealthy food consumption.