Many people who are dieting will often say that eating out can be their downfall. Restaurant menus with no calorie counts make choosing healthy dishes difficult, while the social aspect of a restaurant meal can often encourage people to ‘treat themselves’ and throw all their caution to the winds.
Now a new study has suggested that who we eat with can also have a big impact on the calorific impact of the food we choose. Apparently, eating out with fat friends is more likely to make people eat smaller portions, while slim friends with big appetites encourage dieters to copy their eating habits.
One of the authors of the report, a young woman weighing 8 stone, arranged meetings with 200 university students at a staged cinema screening. The students thought research was being done into their food tastes.
With each individual she opted for either a small or large snack and then offered her companion the same choice.
However, while meeting some of the students she donned a fat suit that made her look 5 stone heavier. She discovered the students mimicked her food choices, which did not differ whether she was fat or thin, though the amount they ate did.
When dining with a fat person who ordered the larger snack, the companion was less likely to finish their meal. However when eating with a thin person the companion would finish the entire meal.
The research team have published their findings in the Journal of Consumer Research and say that there is clear evidence that our eating choices are affected by whether our eating companions are fat or thin.