Surprise Reasons You're Eating More

Your ice cream dish is white porcelain.

You're smart to scoop your French vanilla ice cream into dainty porcelain bowls, because you know that the smaller the dinnerware, the larger the serving appears (and thus, the less you'll eat). You can cut even more calories by contrasting the color of your food with your dishes. In a study published last year in the Journal of Consumer Research, people were more likely to load up their plates with spaghetti and sauce if those plates happened to be red. The study authors (who included eating-behavior expert Brian Wansink, PhD) said that the way the food appears to blend into the plate color creates the illusion of a smaller portion size. Try eating your pale-colored treats out of party bowls—or brightly colored mugs.