Trick Yourself Into Feeling Full

Wish you could last longer between meals? Fake a bigger serving size the next time you eat. Regardless of your portion size, if you believe you’ve eaten a lot, you’ll feel less hungry later than if you thought your serving was on the smaller side, according to research in the journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers at the University of Bristol showed volunteers small or large portions of soup just before lunch, and then altered the amount of soup they actually ate using a hidden pump that could replenish or drain a soup bowl without the volunteer noticing. Two to three hours after lunch, volunteers who had seen a bigger portion of soup reported much less hunger than those who had been shown the smaller portion.

The authors of the study say that these results reveal how memory processes contribute to feelings of satiety after a meal. “The emotional satisfaction from feeling like you had a big meal may be more important than how much you eat,” says Lisa Drayer R.D., author of The Beauty Diet (not affiliated with the study).

So how can you reap the benefits of this portion control stunt without a hidden soup pump? It’s all about your plating, says Christine Avanti, certified nutritionist, and author of Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food. Try these seven tricks:

Pile on the volume
Make sure to pile on foods that have a lot volume, rather than denser, smaller foods, Avanti advises. For example: “A slice of salmon, asparagus, and a baked potato looks like more than a piece of pizza, but it’s far less caloric,” she says.

Fill up on greens first
When serving dinner, fill half your plate with greens before piling on the main courses, Avanti says. Most vegetables have a lot of volume and the more plate real estate they take up, the more robust and filling your meal appears. Plus, veggies are full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals—other ingredients that can signal your body you are getting enough to eat. Divide the other half of your plate by filling ¼ with protein like chicken or fish and the remaining ¼ with a high-fiber starch like sweet potatoes, she says.

Order the soup
“The concept of soup is that you can load it up with veggies and broth and although it weighs a lot, it isn’t high in calories,” Avanti says. And go ahead and ask for the big bowl—“One large bowl of soup is well under 400 calories,” she says. Perfect for making yourself believe that you’re eating a lot. Just be smart about your soup choice. Choose a broth-based soup with lots of veggies rather than a cream-based soup like clam chowder or broccoli cheese, which is loaded with calories and will defeat the purpose.

Shrink your plates
Eat off saucer-size plates—about six inches in diameter—rather than the bigger plates from the same collection. Researchers from Cornell University found that people who ate hamburgers off of saucers thought they were eating an average of 18 percent more calories than they really were. The people who ate off 12-inch diameter plates, however, were not so deluded.

Toss your bowls
The bigger the bowl, the more you’ll put it in. So when you’re eating foods you tend to gulp, like cereal or ice cream, use a teacup or mug as a serving dish. Save the big bowls for salads and broth-based soups.

Drink from tall glasses
Your tumblers may look short and squat, but they can hold a lot of liquid. People pour about 19 percent more liquid into short, wide glasses than they do in tall ones, according to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Or brains focus more on something’s height than its width, so short glasses don’t appear as full to us.

Choose the teaspoon
Smaller dishes make food look big in comparison. Same goes for spoons, even when you’re just serving yourself: Your brain thinks that overflowing teaspoon is filled with food, even though logically you may know that a full tablespoon still has more on it. Another Cornell study found that people who used three-ounce serving spoons served themselves nearly 15 percent more food than those who scooped using smaller two-ounce spoons.

Additional reporting from Blake Miller

Image: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

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Feeling Blue? Eat More of This

Certain foods make you feel energized, bloated, or tired. But as it happens, your diet can also affect your mood. People who eat foods rich in folate and vitamin B12 are less likely to experience certain symptoms of depression, according to a new Finnish study.

Researchers examined 12-month food-frequency questionnaires of 2,840 Finnish adults, then evaluated the participants’ depression symptoms with a standard 21-question survey. Compared to those who ate diets with the lowest amount of folate and vitamin B12, people with the highest intake of these vitamins were significantly less likely to report sadness, irritability, changes in sleep and appetite, and other symptoms of melancholic depression (MD) triggered by biological factors, like chemical imbalance. However, the vitamins had no effect on non-melancholic depressive symptoms (i.e., low-self esteem and anxiety) caused by external factors like losing a job.

Folate and vitamin B12 help produce serotonin, the brain chemical responsible for happiness. Additionally, skimping on either folate or B12 can heighten your risk of anemia, which can make you feel grumpy and fatigued—also common symptoms of depression. However, the study researchers were surprised that these vitamins appeared to affect different types of depressive symptoms differently, says lead study author Jussi Seppälä, MD, Chief of the Department of Psychiatry of the Hospital District of Southern Savo in Finland. While more research is needed to understand why, it’s clear that diet plays a role in mood management, and it can’t hurt to load up on both vitamins.

Unfortunately, the average woman doesn’t get enough folate in her regular diet, so you may need supplements to reach the recommended daily amount (RDA) of 400 to 800 mg, according to Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, a New York City nutritionist and author of The Miracle Carb Diet. While the study didn’t look at supplements and depression, Zuckerbrot  recommends supplements to women to prevent symptoms of deficiency, so it’s worth a shot. And because the richest sources of B12 are meat, eggs, and dairy, vegetarians and vegans tend to eat less than the 2.4 mcg RDA.

If you’re worried that you don’t get enough of these vitamins, ask your doctor about taking supplements, and get a blood test ASAP. Also, try to incorporate these vitamin-rich foods into your daily meal plan:

Best Sources of Folate (RDA: 400-800 mg)

Food
Serving Size
Amount of Folate

Fortified breakfast cereal (100% DV)

3/4 cup

400 mg

Liver

3 oz

54 mg

Lentils

1/5 cup

45 mg

Spinach

½ cup

115 mg

Enriched noodles, pasta, rice

1/2 cup

77-110 mg

Great Northern beans

½ cup

90 mg

Asparagus

4 spears

90 mg

Avocado

½ cup

59 mg

Broccoli

½ cup

51 mg

Orange juice

1 cup

47 mg

Source: National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements

Best Sources of B12 (RDA 2.4 mcg)

Food
Serving Size
Amount of B12
Clams 3 oz

84.1 mcg

Liver 3 oz

70.7 mcg

Fortified breakfast cereal (100% DV)

¾ cup

6.0 mcg

Fish (trout, salmon, tuna)

3 oz

2.5-5.4 mcg

Beef

3 oz

1.4 mcg

Low-fat milk

1 cup

1.2 mcg

Low-fat yogurt

8 oz

1.1 mcg

Cheese

1 oz

0.9 mcg

Egg

1 whole

0.6 mcg

Chicken

3 oz

.03 mcg

Source: National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements
photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

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