McDonald's diners may gobble down
a lot more calories with their burgers and fries than do
their counterparts at Subway sandwich shops.
But at least they don't have a false
sense of virtue about it.
In a study called "the McSubway Project,"
Brian Wansink of Cornell University and researchers at the
University of Illinois intercepted 300 people as they finished
their lunches at McDonald's or Subway. They asked them what
they ate and how many calories they thought they had consumed.
The scientists then calculated the
number of calories the diners actually consumed by adding
up the calories in the foods and subtracting the calories
in their leftovers. Among the findings presented this week
at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society, an organization
of weight-loss professionals:
• Customers at McDonald's consumed
about 710 calories and estimated that they had eaten about
670 calories each.
• Those at Subway each ate about
560 calories but estimated only 335.
"The customers at McDonald's ate a
lot of calories and knew they'd eaten a lot," says Wansink,
director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab. "But those at
Subway experienced the 'halo effect,' which allowed them
to think they were eating better than they were."
Another study by the same researcher
discovered what many office workers know all too well: People
are more likely to mindlessly munch candies if the bowl
is right on their desk.
Every day for four weeks, researchers
put 30 Hershey's Kisses in either clear or opaque dishes
for 40 secretaries. The dishes were placed in four different
ways: On their desks and visible; on their desks but in
containers with lids so the candy wasn't visible; about
6½ feet away and visible; the same distance but not
visible.
Researchers kept a daily record of
how many pieces of candy were eaten and refilled the bowls
every evening. Findings:
• People ate almost eight candies
a day when the bowl was on their desks and visible; they
each ate about 4½ a day when it was on their desk but
in a covered dish.
• They ate an average of about
5½ candies a day when the bowl was 6½ feet away
and visible. And they ate slightly more than three candies
a day when it was the same distance away and not visible.
"It was basically an 'out of sight,
out of mind' demonstration," Wansink says. "The less visible
and less convenient the candy, the less people thought about
it and were tempted."
And, he adds, "another piece of advice
might be to move the fruit bowl closer."
- More articles
on Fast Food
Reference Source 129
October
21, 2005
