The diet dangers of healthy food: How 追加するing fruit to dessert fools us into thinking it has a 16% LOWER calorie count

By Margot Peppers

Published: | Updated:

によれば new 研究, our brains are often fooled by restaurants into thinking that 追加するing healthy toppings to an unhealthy dish 現実に makes it いっそう少なく calorie laden.

In a Forbes 熟考する／考慮する to be published in the 定期刊行物 of 消費者 Psychology, 関係者s were asked to 見積（る） the calorie count of meals with a healthy base, like salad, and those with an unhealthy base, like cake.

When a topping of fruit was 追加するd to a piece of cake, 関係者s' calorie count 予測 was a whopping 16per cent lower than it was without the topping.

Fruit topping

Fooled by fruit: によれば new 研究, we are more likely to underestimate the calorie count of unhealthy foods, like cake, when it is topped with something healthy, like fruit

This is because, によれば Forbes, 'our brains 明らかに th 署名／調印する that a healthy item somehow subtracts calories when 追加するd to something fattening'.

Indeed, 関係者s were much more likely to underestimate the calorie content of an unhealthy food, 特に when it was topped with something healthy.

When it （機の）カム to 見積（る）ing the number of calories in a healthy dish, however, 関係者s were more or いっそう少なく 正確な, whether the dishes' toppings were healthy or unhealthy.

What's more this 傾向 may translate to food contents, 同様に as toppings.

A calorific carrot cake, for example, may be 見解（をとる）d as 'healthier' than a chocolate cake, since it 含む／封じ込めるs a vegetable, even if it has twice the carbohydrates and grams of fat.

Calorie count of salads

Guessing the greens: 関係者s in the 熟考する／考慮する 正確に 予報するd the calorie count in dishes with a healthy base, like salad, whether its topping was healthy or unhealthy

The 熟考する／考慮する also 設立する that because of this 傾向, 消費者s are more likely to eat more of an unhealthy food if it has a healthy topping.

In 2009, Dietary おとりs published a 類似の 熟考する／考慮する about how our brains 反応する to 確かな foods on a menu.

研究員s gave college students menus for two restaurants - one that 申し込む／申し出d French fries, chicken nuggets and a baked potato, and the other with the same 選択s, 加える salad.

33per cent of students selecting from the menu that 含むd salad 選ぶd for french fries, which are 広範囲にわたって perceived as the most unhealthy 選択.

By contrast, just ten パーセント of the other group chose French fries.

Keith Wilcox, one of the authors of the paper, explained: 'When you consider the healthy 選択, you say, 井戸／弁護士席, I could have that 選択. That lowers your guard, 主要な to self-indulgent 行為.'

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