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Changing the Way We Eat: A Research on the Changes in our Eating Habit
Romell Ian B. De La Cruz
Ateneo De Manila University
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ABSTRACT
This paper looks at three areas of eating that have changed throughout the years. It
also looks at how these three have affected the waistlines of the general population. The first
area is portion sizes. Portion size is how much is being served. And in different instances, it
has been shown that portion size has increased, as evidenced by a change in dinner plate size,
among others. The second factor is food packaging. Here, it is said that subtle details can
affect what we consume and how much we consume of that certain food item. The third, and
definitely not the least, is the atmospherics, or the so-called “ambience” of a certain eating
place. It is said that our immediate surrounding can affect how much we eat and how long we
eat, depending on what the immediate eating surrounding is.
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Nowadays, there is an ongoing thought of being happy with whatever size one may
have. So, it is not a surprise to see brands dedicated to “plus size” men and women. The
number of these so-called “plus sized” men and women are growing. One has only to look
around to notice it for yourself. But this growth would not happen if there is no increase in
demand. And, indeed, there is an increase in demand owing from the growing obesity
numbers.
According to an article in the World Health Organization (WHO) website, the number
of people with obesity has grown. It has increased by almost two-folds in between 1980 –
2008. In the 1980’s, only 5% of men and 8& of women had obesity, worldwide. By 2008,
10% of men and 14% of women are obese. This is not a statistic that is focused on the United
States and a few other key cities. This is a statistic that has a worldwide scope.
In the Philippines alone, there is has been an increase in the mean, or average, body
mass index (BMI), from 21.2 in 1980 to 22.9 in 2008. The Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a
measure of measure relating a person’s height and weight. It may be said that the increase in
number is not too alarming but that number is only an average. In 2008, 6.4% of all Filipinos
are obese and 26.9% are overweight. That is 33.3% of the population that are categorized as
overweight/obese. But what is obesity?
“Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that
presents a risk to health (WHO, 2014).” It affects the way we live our lives. It may inhibit us
from the things we want to do. Thus, it is an imperative that we look after our weight. Aside
from being a big disruption to the way we live, it is also an expensive disease to take care of.
According to the US National Institute of Health (2014), “US$75-$125 billion is spent
on indirect and direct costs due to obesity-related diseases.” Author Eric Schlosser says in
one of his books that the amount of healthcare spending in the United States on obesity-
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related illnesses reach US$240 billion. Those amounts account for the 25.5% of Americans
who are obese and, possibly, the 69.4% who are overweight.
Yet, the increase of the average waistline is not by coincidence. Clothes are not the
only things you see being “upsized.” Fastfood chains offer food items that definitely go over
the recommended serving sizes and are full of unhealthy calories. Food companies have
started selling large bags of food items that are also many times over the prescribed amount.
Now, these supersizing are not the only factors that affect our waistlines and the way
we eat. Besides the increases in portion sizes, packaging, and the eating atmosphere also play
a part in changing the way we eat and, in turn, our waistlines.
The first factor which affects weight gain of the general population is the increase in
portion size of food that is served in restaurants and in packets. First, I would like to
differentiate the concepts of serving size and portion size. The difference is essential in
understanding how portion sizes, and not the serving sizes, are to blame for the overeating of
people, which leads to weight gain.
According to a paper released by the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006, p.2), a serving size “is a standardized
unit of measuring foods…used in dietary guidance.” Meanwhile, a “[portion] size is the
amount of a single food item served in a single eating occasion.”
With this in mind, the amount of food we eat can be affected by the portion sizes of
the food being served. This means that a larger bag of potato chips or a larger dinner plate
might cause an increase in the amount of food consumed. This is evidenced by a research
done by Van Ittersum & Wansink (2012, p.4) wherein they investigated the effects of the
Delboeuf Illusion on food consumption. What they did is to give subjects two bowls, one of
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which is larger than the other. They were trying to see how much the size of the bowl
affected the perception of the subject on the serving dish and the subsequent reaction to
putting food on their own bowls.
The Delboeuf Illusion is a phenomenon introduced by a Belgian by the name of Franz
Joseph Delboeuf in 1865 which says that 2 identical circles are perceived differently when
surrounded by a “much larger circle and the other one was surrounded by only a slightly
larger circle.” With regard to this concept, Van Ittersum and Wansink found that people eat
more when given bigger plates and less when using smaller ones. This would mean that, as
consumers, we would want to avoid purchasing food items in large bags or plates. This is
easier said than done.
In a set of presentation slides released by the United States National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute in 2002, which is available on their website, almost all of the food items they
measured exceeded the standards set by the FDA and the USDA by up to 700%. In addition
to this, common fastfood items are 2-5 times larger in comparison to 50 years ago, with
regards to the portion sizes. The changes in the portion size are not only evident in food items
available commercially but also in the sizes of the dinner plates.
In the 1700’s, a dinner plate was less than 9 inches in diameter. By the early 1900’s, it
grew to 10 ½ inches. Since then, buffet plates, which measure 12 inches in diameter, are
being used in exchange for dinner plates (Smith, 2013).
With the increase in portion sizes served in restaurants, the increase in the sizes of
dinner plates, and the subsequent increase of the amount of food consumed due to the
increase in plate size, calorie intake would grow. This would not necessarily mean an
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increase in weight, as mentioned by the research review paper released by the Division of
Nutrition and Physical Activity. What it mentions, though, is that there are “short-term
studies showing that controlling portion sizes helps limit calorie intake (p.1).” It is also stated
there that the amount of calories consumed can only be considered as fattening when the
amount of calories consumed is greater than that which is consumed. But, given the
conclusions reached by Van Ittersum and Wansink, in their research, we find that, indeed,
there is an increase in consumption and that it would lead to weight gain.
Another factor in how much food we have consumed is the packaging and the
surrounding environment in which we are eating. On top of the idea that bags of food items
have grown larger, we have been manipulated by advertisers and marketers in their plans to
keep us hungry and have us eat.
There are many ways of manipulating, or tricking the human mind, into doing things
or influencing the decisions it makes. One way of doing so is tricking the eyes and sight, one
of the major senses that we use to observe the world we live in. This can be achieved through
the use of colors. This is called Color Psychology.
Color Psychology has been around for quite some time and its findings on the
connection between color and emotions have been instrumental in the advertising industry
(McArdle, 2013). It is this idea that the research would like to put forward in the further
investigation of how packaging affects food consumption.
With a simple observation of most fastfood chains, one thing remains the same. They
all use the color red. This would be counterintuitive for institutions who want to create a
brand name and separate itself from the competition through branding. So, why then would
these fastfood chains want to use the same color repeatedly?
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It has been shown that the red shows excitement and passion. Aside from this, red is
also used to show that people should act immediately (Morris, 2013). These ideas would then
be transferred to the food people are eating. They would, subconsciously, be imbibed with
the idea that the food is exciting and very good. They would also be hinted that they must act
immediately on their whims with regard to food, specifically the food items being sold in
whatever red-themed fastfood chain there is. These includes most, if not all, fastfood chains.
McDonalds, KFC and Jollibee are a few examples of this. As mentioned by guidance
counselor Abet Go, in a personal correspondence, if many fastfood chains are doing it, then
the marketers must be doing something in the right direction (personal communication,
Febrauary 21, 2014).
Aside from the color red, yellow is another dominant color used by the fastfood
industry. According to Morris (2013), yellow is tied to “happiness, excitement and fun.” On
top of that, it easily catches the eye of people, causing them to notice the sign and whatever
the sign represents. In the case of fastfood restaurants, they would be easily noticed by
hungry consumers, which might make them more susceptible to eating in the restaurant.
A color’s hue is not the only one which affects our consumption of food. Color
contrast also plays a part in food consumption. In the same research done by Van Ittersum
and Wansink (2013) on the Delboeuf Illusion, they also investigated the effects of color
contrast on the amount of food which is consumed.
They have found that the more intense the contrast between the serving dish and the
food the more food one is prone to eating. Meanwhile, the reverse, meaning less contrast,
lessens the consumption.
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With the use of colors, we see that visual cues, used by marketers and entrepreneurs
in luring potential customers, are affecting the way we eat. Advertisers use highly stylized
versions of the food they advertise. These are “cues” that tell us that, somehow, the food item
looks nice and must also taste nice. We are, then, getting convinced to purchase the certain
food item and eat it. Another one is the whole set-up of a supermarket. According to author
Charles Duhhig (2012), most supermarkets are arranged so that you would buy more
junkfood because you have already bought fruits, which were at the front of the stores.
Yet, the effects of visual cues go beyond making one eat more. If used in the right
way, visual cues, which could be included in food packaging, can be used to help people
control their eating and be more mindful of the amount of food they have consumed. But the
lack of it is helping to facilitate the growth of the obesity epidemic.
To support my claim on visual cues, a research by Geier, Wansink and Rozin (2012)
tested how dividers in a can of potato chips would help people approximate better their
consumption. They put red potato chips every after one serving. What they found was that
because of the dividers, people were more conscious of how much they were eating. This
would entail a more mindful way of eating, albeit subconsciously.
Another packaging idea that might be contributing to the obesity epidemic is the
wholesale, bulk buying of food products. A paper by Wansink (2004) mentions how the large
stocks of food makes the food more appealing to eat, through the sheer volume that people
see. Wansink points out a study by Terry & Beck which “investigated the link between the
visibility of stockpiled food and obesity (p. 468).” What they did was to compare the habits
of homes with obese and non-obese families. They found that, in general, newly stocked food
items are more prone to be eaten.
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Nowadays, most food items are sold in big packs. These packs are good for more than
one serving. Meaning, they can be used to restock the pantry, so to speak. Yet, people
consume them within one sitting.
It is not only the stockpiling that makes people eat more, but also its visibility.
Making food more visible “can stimulate unplanned consumption (Wansink, 2004).” This
event happens because of the visible food serves a constant reminder to eat it.
Having stockpiled food in one’s home may be a way for us to go and eat, meanwhile,
restaurants are trying hard to make their restaurants more appealing, consciously and
subconsciously, to eat and stay at. Wansink (2004) mentions four “drivers in the eating
environment: (a) eating atmospherics, (b) eating effort, (c) eating with others, and (d) eating
distractions.”
For the purpose of this discussion, I would like to differentiate all four and how they
affect how we eat, which, in turn, affects our weight.
“Atmospherics refer to ambient characteristics—such as temperature, lighting odor
and noise—that influence the immediate eating environment.” (Wansink, 2004, p. 465) These
factors combine to form the environment which is suitable for a comfortable, yet prolonged,
stay at the restaurant. This would make one eat more since one feels comfortable inside the
restaurant.
After atmospherics, there is the eating effort. This is “related to the ease, access, or
convenience with which a food can be consumed. This is one of the strongest influences on
consumption (Wansink, 2004).” Several studies have been conducted and have shown that
several opportunities for easier access to certain food items, like ice cream and milk, made
people eat it more.
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But eating more can also be attributed to eating with another person. Wansink (2004)
goes to say that “…the presence of other people influences not only what is eaten, but it can
also increase how much is eaten (p. 461).” Friendly and familiar people make one eat more
since one is relaxed.
While eating with other people, especially friends and family, makes people eat more
because they are comfortable, eating with distractions create “script-related patterns that are
uncorrelated with hunger (Wansink, 2004, p.463).” These “script-related patterns’ are
patterns, or rhythms, that are brought about by certain distractions. Take eating popcorn while
watching a movie, for example. One would tend to get more and eat quicker when the movie
gets more fast-paced. The distractions create, as the name says, distractions which make one
forget about the amount of food one is taking. Not minding what we are taking would lead to
eating more, which would lead to weight gain and, most probably, weight gain.
Another packaging-related factor is that variety, or its perception, increases food
consumption. “Khan and Wansink have shown that simply increasing the perceived variety of
an assortment can increase consumption (Wansink, 2004, p. 466).”
Why would food companies invest so much in creating the perfect environment and
the perfect packaging for their products? They want profit. This profit is the driving force to
the next thing that affects our eating habits: marketing.
Chandon & Wansink (2012) have shown that accessibility, along with saliency and
convenience are what marketers focus on. In doing so, overeating becomes easier to do due to
the fact that eating is a highly habitual behavior that can be affected by the environment.
Different factors in marketing have led to a manipulation of consumers by marketers.
Changes in price can affect what people buy. Lowering prices for a long time leads
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consumers to buy more, thus, consume more. A short-term price change increases the
consumption of that food. This continues weeks until after the sale.
The entirety of this paper has focused on the different aspects of the eating habit and
how it has changed through the years.
First, there are the changes in the in dinner plates which implies a more voracious
style of eating. Secondly, there are the different packaging ideas that contribute to one
consuming more than the recommended amounts. Last, but definitely not the least, there are
the numerous ways that marketers try to woo us into consuming their food product, may it me
in a to-go package or inside a restaurant.
These factors have, directly or indirectly, affected the way everyone eats. This creates
the growing epidemic of obesity, which we must be aware of. Obesity is a major problem in
modern society. Knowing these factors, we are now able to discern what we need to be
mindful of to take care of ourselves.
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References
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Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity.(2006). Research to Practice Series No. 2: Portion
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Geier, A., Rozin, P. & Wansink, B. (2012). Red potato chips: segmentation cues can
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