Maintaining a healthy body weight requires sticking to moderate meal proportions. It's easy, however, to deceive oneself into thinking it's okay to eat a few more bites. Research published online in the journal Appetite on January 15, 2022, provides an example. On two separate occasions, scientists served 37 people the same pasta salad. The dinner was described as "light" on one occasion and as "full" on another. People who ate the "light" lunch ate slightly more than those who ate the "filling" meal (and reported feeling less full). The findings suggest that assumptions about how full you'll feel after eating can influence your actual food consumption and that buying meals promoted as "light" to reduce weight should be approached with caution, according to the study's authors.
