Abstract

Using the diet rice bowl, this study examined whether visual cues related to portion size can influence intake volume without altering satiation. 24 subjects ate lunch and subsequent dinner meal in the lab once a week for 2 weeks. Each week at noon , they were served one of two different sizes of a rice (150 g of rice by the diet rice bowl and 210 g of rice by the general rice bowl) but recognized the same volume of which they could eat as much as they wanted of side dishes. Subjects returned to the lab five hours later for a standard dinner, which was consumed ad libitum. Results showed that the subjects who were eating from the diet rice bowl ate less rice (222.4 Kcal vs 306.5 Kcal, p < 0.001) and total energy intake (412.5 Kcal vs 499.2 Kcal, p < 0.001) than those eating from a general rice bowl at lunch. However, despite consuming 21% less energy intake at lunch, the rates of satiety were not significantly different after eating from the diet rice bowl and from the general diet bowl. And there were no significant difference in rice intake and energy intake at dinner between the diet rice bowl and the general rice bowl. These results suggest decreasing the portion size by the diet rice bowl with biased visual cues leads to decreased rice intake and energy intake without altering the satiation. This is, the decreased amount of rice in a diet rice bowl may implicitly suggest what might be construed as an appropriate amount to consume and eventually it suggests smaller consumption norms.

• Keywords: diet rice bowl; visual cues; portion size; energy intake; consumption norms