Menu secrets that can make you slim by design

Two easy ways to decode menus

2014-07-29

(Press-News.org) If you've ever ordered the wrong food at a restaurant, don't blame yourself; blame the menu. What you order may have less to do with what you want and more to do with a menu's layout and descriptions.

After analyzing 217 menus and the selections of over 300 diners, the Cornell study published this month in the International Journal of Hospitality Management showed that when it comes to what you order for dinner, two things matter most: what you see on the menu and how you imagine it will taste.

First, any food item that attracts attention (with bold, hightlighted or colored font or set apart in a text box) makes us more likely to order that food item rather than the item listed next to it. "In most cases, these are the least healthy items on the menu," said lead author, Brian Wansink, author of Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life.

Second, menu names with descriptive items sell better and lead you to believe that they taste better. The researchers cite a study where they changed the names of restaurant menu items to make them more descriptive; the seafood filet became Succulent Italian Seafood Filet and red beans and rice became Cajun Red Beans and Rice. Sales of these items went up by 28% and they were rated as tastier, even though the recipe was identical. Diners were also willing to pay an average of 12% more money for a menu item with a descriptive name.

The best solution to healthier restaurant dining may be an easy one. "Just ask your server," says Wansink, "Ask 'What are your two or three lighter entrées that get the most compliments?' or 'What's the best thing on the menu if a person wants a light dinner?'"

Importantly, Wansink and co-author Katie Love point out that restaurants can also use these two tactics – catching attention and priming imagination to guide diners to buy healthier high margin items. It's one way menu design could help make diners slim by design. See the menu below for some examples!

INFORMATION: For more information visit: http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/OP/menu_design

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

From 'Finding Nemo' to minerals -- what riches lie in the deep sea?

2014-07-29

As fishing and the harvesting of metals, gas and oil have expanded deeper and deeper into the ocean, scientists are drawing attention to the services provided by the deep sea, the world's largest environment. "This is the time to discuss deep-sea stewardship before exploitation is too much farther underway," says lead-author Andrew Thurber. In a review published today in Biogeosciences, a journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), Thurber and colleagues summarise what this habitat provides to humans, and emphasise the need to protect it. "The deep sea realm is so ...

Genomic analysis of prostate cancer indicates best course of action after surgery

2014-07-29

(PHILADELPHIA) – There is controversy over how best to treat patients after they've undergone surgery for prostate cancer. Does one wait until the cancer comes back or provide men with additional radiation therapy to prevent cancer recurrence? Now, a new study from Thomas Jefferson University shows that a genomic tool can help doctors and patients make a more informed decision. "We are moving away from treating everyone the same," says first author Robert Den, M.D., Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and Cancer Biology at Thomas Jefferson University. "Genomic ...

Optimum inertial self-propulsion design for snowman-like nanorobot

2014-07-29

Scale plays a major role in locomotion. Swimming microorganisms, such as bacteria and spermatozoa, are subjected to relatively small inertial forces compared to the viscous forces exerted by the surrounding fluid. Such low-level inertia makes self-propulsion a major challenge. Now, scientists have found that the direction of propulsion made possible by such inertia is opposite to that induced by a viscoelastic fluid. These findings have been published in EPJ E by François Nadal from the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), in Le Barp, France, and colleagues. ...

Team studies the social origins of intelligence in the brain

2014-07-29

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — By studying the injuries and aptitudes of Vietnam War veterans who suffered penetrating head wounds during the war, scientists are tackling -- and beginning to answer -- longstanding questions about how the brain works. The researchers found that brain regions that contribute to optimal social functioning also are vital to general intelligence and to emotional intelligence. This finding bolsters the view that general intelligence emerges from the emotional and social context of one's life. The findings are reported in the journal Brain. "We are ...

NOAA: Alaska fisheries and communities at risk from ocean acidification

2014-07-29

Ocean acidification is driving changes in waters vital to Alaska's valuable commercial fisheries and subsistence way of life, according to new NOAA-led research that will be published online in Progress in Oceanography. Many of Alaska's nutritionally and economically valuable marine fisheries are located in waters that are already experiencing ocean acidification, and will see more in the near future, the study shows. Communities in southeast and southwest Alaska face the highest risk from ocean acidification because they rely heavily on fisheries that are expected to ...

Preterm children's brains can catch up years later

2014-07-29

There's some good news for parents of preterm babies – latest research from the University of Adelaide shows that by the time they become teenagers, the brains of many preterm children can perform almost as well as those born at term. A study conducted by the University's Robinson Research Institute has found that as long as the preterm child experiences no brain injury in early life, their cognitive abilities as a teenager can potentially be as good as their term-born peers. However, the results of the study, published in this month's issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, ...

New anesthesia technique helps show cause of obstruction in sleep apnea

2014-07-29

July 29, 2014 – A simplified anesthesia procedure may enable more widespread use of preoperative testing to demonstrate the cause of airway obstruction in patients with severe sleep apnea, suggests a study in Anesthesia & Analgesia. Dr. Joshua H. Atkins and Dr. Jeff E. Mandel of the University of Pennsylvania and their colleagues have developed a new "ramp control" anesthetic technique for putting patients to sleep briefly-just enough to show the "obstructive anatomy" responsible for sleep apnea. The simplified technique requires no special expertise and limits drops ...

Mysterious esophagus disease is autoimmune after all

2014-07-29

Achalasia is a rare disease – it affects 1 in 100,000 people – characterized by a loss of nerve cells in the esophageal wall. While its cause remains unknown, a new study by a team of researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium, the University of Bonn in Germany and other European institutions confirms for the first time that achalasia is autoimmune in origin. The study, published on 6 July in Nature Genetics, is an important step towards unraveling the mysterious disease. When we swallow, a sphincter in the lower esophagus opens, allowing food to enter the stomach. Nerve cells ...

Worldwide water shortage by 2040

2014-07-29

Two new reports that focus on the global electricity water nexus have just been published. Three years of research show that by the year 2040 there will not be enough water in the world to quench the thirst of the world population and keep the current energy and power solutions going if we continue doing what we are doing today. It is a clash of competing necessities, between drinking water and energy demand. Behind the research is a group of researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, Vermont Law School and CNA Corporation in the US. In most countries, electricity ...

Mortality rates increase due to extreme heat and cold

2014-07-29

Epidemiological studies have repeatedly shown that death rates rise in association with extremely hot weather. The heat wave in Western Europe in the summer of 2003, for example, resulted in about 22,000 extra deaths. A team of researchers led by Dr. Alex-andra Schneider at the Institute of Epidemiology II at the Helmholtz Zentrum München examined the impact of extreme temperatures on the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease in three Bavarian cities and included both high and low temperatures in the study. "Our findings confirm the results of our previous ...

Menu secrets that can make you slim by design

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: