The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
Healthy Huddle: The Portion Illusion
We explore the “portion illusion” and how plate size, color, bowls, spoons, and even room space trick our brains into eating more. Practical swaps and hand-based guides make portions feel right without weighing or counting.
• how large plates make food look smaller
• why dessert plates feel more satisfying with small servings
• space illusions from rooms to dinnerware
• plate color contrast and fullness perception
• bowls and serving spoons driving bigger portions
• deceptive glass sizes and “value” signals
• family-style refills lowering friction for seconds
• easy swaps for plates, bowls, and where food sits
• hand-based portion guides for protein, carbs, fats
• mindful questions that reset “enough” at meals
Welcome to Healthy Huddle. Thank you for taking a little time to join us today. I'm excited you're here. If this is your first time each week, we join a live call that we have virtually that we discuss our healthy huddle topic and we share ideas and thoughts, and people share and have questions and answers and interact. So again, thank you for joining us for Healthy Huddle. And we will start with our live call. So we are gonna talk about the portion illusion. How thing has anybody ever watched Catch Me If No, is it not? Is it Catch Me If You Can? No. That magic show. They just came out with a new movie. What is that called, Kim?
SPEAKER_03:Now you see me. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Now you see me. Yeah. Yeah. It it's uh Catch Me If You Can is a different one. Catch Me If You Can is a good one too, but Now You See Me is about magic. And so we're gonna kind of talk about portion illusion and the magic that happens. Unfortunately, most of the time it's the magic that happens not in our favor, unfortunately. So we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about how our eyes can lie to us, but the portion doesn't. It's kind of like when our eyes are bigger than our stomach, and you chat, you get this, you know, especially at Thanksgiving, as we come up to Thanksgiving, is it is usually your eyes bigger than your stomach? Because usually what happens when you fill up the plate? You well, you have to get all of everything, you have to get everything, everything, everything, yes, and and so we're gonna talk about when we get the little bit of everything, how it's all sneaky, because all that little bit of everything also depends on the spoon size and the fork size and the plate size. Because we're gonna talk about because I mean at our Thanksgiving, we don't get the little the little styrofoam plates, we get the big big chinette platters. Yes, I mean that are strong enough to hold everything that you pile on there, and so we're gonna talk about how we fill those up and how that all looks. So the interesting thing is that food looks smaller on bigger plates. So if you have a so if you have a big old Chinette platter and you put a little bit of turkey and a little bit of dressing on there, and maybe a deviled egg, is it gonna look like you have much food? No, no, it's gonna look pretty small. I mean, you really got to fill up that thing. And the thing, nice thing if you haven't ever used the Chinette platters, the nice thing is they have edges, and so nothing's gonna spill over, so you can go right to the edge. It's not like those flimsy styrofoam ones that'll just slide right off. But food looks smaller on bigger plates, you know. If we put dessert, do we usually put dessert on a big platter?
SPEAKER_03:No, Thanksgiving, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, some well, sometimes, yeah. For Thanksgiving, you might have a platter full of all your desserts, but typically it's a little small little plate that we put dessert on. Why is that? Because the food looks bigger on a smaller plate, so it look it'll look like we have a bigger piece of pie on a dessert plate, and it'll look like we have a bigger piece of cake on dessert on a dessert plate. So the problem is with those big plates, is we pile more on there. So I have this, I caught my well, it's actually my pizza plate and my pancake plate. So it's this red plate, it's like a square, and it's bigger than all of our other plates, so it has to go under all the other plates, and so it's my pizza plate because I can pile more pizza on there without having to stack it. So um, and you know, when I put pizza on there, I don't put them like that because you can fit more if you put them, you know, in the pointy end to the end. You can fit more on there. Um, so I actually get a it's my pizza plate. And then on Saturday and Sundays, I have to use it because it's my pancake plate, and I make my pancakes the same size, and I need all three of my pancakes to fit on there because I don't stack my pancakes. Now, could I easily get a smaller saucer? Yes. Could I fit much pizza on there? No. Would it look like I'm eating more? Yes, if I put it on a smaller plate, so that's kind of the problem. We're kind of guilty of that. You're like, I want more food, so I'm gonna get a bigger plate. We don't typically go, I don't want to eat as much, so I'm gonna get a small plate. Um, we we typically don't do that. Um, typically, so we eat, get this, we eat 20 to 30 percent more when it's served on a larger plate. Think about when you go to a restaurant. Are the plates usually big or small? Typically, big big, and they're usually filled up because well, we want to get our money's worth, um, is what we say. Um, but we typically eat more um on a larger plate. So, I mean, if you wanted to try this, I'm not saying you have to, or but if you want to try it at Thanksgiving, um, maybe you get a smaller plate and see if you eat eat less or you go back for seconds, or how that looks because we're gonna talk about how that how the science works behind that. So, so basically how it looks is our brain when it goes when we look at the plate to food ratio, um, we're trying to decide, is this enough food? And do I want to keep eating? And so uh we're looking at it, and that big plate, we're thinking, is this enough food? And typically we go, well, I hope it is, and we try to eat all of it. Um, so with a bigger plate, um our brain thinks, well, it's not enough food, so we just keep eating, um, because we fill up the plate. Um, with a smaller plate, our brain thinks it's plenty, um, it's satisfying. So if you get a dessert plate and you put some finger foods on it, we love finger foods, um, versus a bigger plate. What do you think you're gonna think if you put those finger foods on a smaller plate? You have more. Yeah, yeah, you'll feel like you have more um because it's a smaller area. And um, so it's interesting because when we come into circuit, we have a small area. Really, it's it's it's small. So we fit in, you know, we we feel like we have a really full class if we have 15 to 18. It looks really full and look like, man, we are crowded. And so then I go over on Tuesdays and Thursdays to Bible Baptist into their fellowship hall to have Shaker class. And sometimes I'll tell Kim, you know, we didn't have a very big class today. And I tell her that I think, well, I should probably count. So sometimes I try to count what I'm trying to teach, and we might have 20 to 24 in that space when I said we didn't have a very big class today, but we had more than what we might have had at circuit class, and so why would I say we had a bunch at circuit when there's only 15 to 18, and we didn't have many when there's only 20 to 24 at the church? Space, space, exactly. If if we took those 20 to 24 and brought them here, we go, oh my gosh, we had so many today. Like I would have that, I wouldn't even have that many when we had it at Synergy, when I'd have Shakers at Synergy, and I think we'd have a bunch. But now over there at the church, we have a big space in the fellowship hall, and so I think you know, we've had up to if I say, tell Kim, we had a big class today, that might mean we might have 35 or 40 people there. And and it's and it's just based on the space, and so it's no different on our plate. If we have a small plate, a small space, and we crowd it with food, we look like we have a bunch of food. We get a big space, big plate, we put the same amount of food on there, we go, man, that's not very much. I'm gonna have to go back for more. Or I'm gonna have to pile more on. So it's kind of how the brain works. The plates are no different than me thinking the space here versus the space at the church. It's it's it's kind of the same. So then and then the interesting thing about plate color. How many people so how many people have white plates? We do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we do too, but we usually use paper plates.
SPEAKER_00:Are they white? Yeah, yes. Okay, so those make food seem smaller. The white makes them seem smaller. We have we actually have white plates, um, real plates, but then we have, you know, we have the real um expensive fancy ones um from Walmart and Target that you buy for 50 cents. Those plastic ones. Yeah, that's what that's what we uh use a lot of. Yeah. Um, and then of course, we you know, we have to rotate them so they all get used equally because we can't let one get used more than the other, so they all have to get rotated. Yeah, we don't want to let them left them filled out. Um, but the good news is so we have white plates, we have those, what are the the corning ware, I don't know what they're called, but corralware. Corralware, yeah. So we have those, those are white with the little green things around them. So it makes food seem smaller. But the interesting thing about our plastic plates, they're all colorful. And when we have contrasting plate colors, it means it's more visually filling. So if we have a dark plate, it might make pasta look like it's more than what's actually there. So think about that when you have your plates when you put food on there. I mean, think about, I mean, I'm thinking about our Thanksgiving when we put our food on our chinette, it does make it all seem smaller, like there's a lot of food on that plate. Uh and so the plate color does matter because it's visual. You think about room colors. When you go into a room, do you paint your room a certain color to make it look bigger or smaller?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Do you put furniture in there to make it look bigger or smaller? Based on color, sometimes. I mean, if you're a real decorator, you might know that. But so, like it's synergy. Do you remember the back wall was black and it had a stripe, and the walls were certain gray or something like that? So I didn't pick that out, not at all. Lee actually told me, because if y'all didn't know, Lee was actually in her former life in in an industrial designer. So she had an awareness of big spaces, how to make them look more appealing, more larger, more aesthetically pleasing. And so that those color schemes were were her idea. I told her she was nuts when she said color the back wall, paint it black. I said, that is a bad idea. She said, trust me. I said, okay. But it did make a difference because it's visual, it's visually makes it different. So our our plate colors are no different with how our brain works. But somehow we kind of think that is. So if we think about you know, bigger bowls and plates, what's it do? It makes us want to take more. You know, think about cereal. We have some plastic bowls, again, those fancy 50 cent ones from Target that are bigger than a normal little corning ware or cornet bowl. So if I have cereal, I haven't had cereal in a long time, but if I do, I really want a bigger bowl because I'm gonna put more in it because I want more. Now, would that small bowl be just enough? It would, but I'd go for the big bowl. So bigger plates, bigger bowls, we want to put more in it. So, Renee, you said about we're gonna take a little serving of everything. Typically, it also depends on what kind of spoons we have. Bigger spoons, bigger servings. We have this when we make macaroni cheese, we usually have this spoon that we use. It's a big plastic one. But you, I mean, you take one serving of that and you have a whole bunch of macaroni and cheese on your plate, versus uh you know, a little, it's not a not a cereal spoon, but a little bit bigger than that. It's gonna be not as much. So the serving spoons make a big difference. So if you want to have fun with your family at the holidays, put out the small spoons.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and you'll get chewed out too. They'll all complain, say who put out these they all complain, all of them wind up in the sink.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and they'll say, Who put out these small spoons? I can't get enough.
SPEAKER_02:My daddy even asked me one time about we were having financial problems because of the small spoons. He thought we were starving to death.
SPEAKER_00:But it it'll make a difference. I mean, he's probably thinking I'm gonna starve to death by the time it takes me to spoon all this out. But but it makes a difference of what we what kind of spoon we put in there. So there is, I think it's it and then it dose, they have a margarita, like a margarita glass, and then they have this tall glass.
SPEAKER_03:They have a grande, and then they have a regular.
SPEAKER_00:But both of them are the same, right?
SPEAKER_03:They held the same amount. Okay, which we have tested it. Yes, that's good to know. That is fraudulent.
SPEAKER_00:So it's this, so it's this, it's this mar regular margarita glass.
SPEAKER_03:They call that one the regular or the small.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and then it has this one that has like a the goblet. The goblet, and they call that the big one.
SPEAKER_03:The grande.
SPEAKER_00:The grande, because it's visually bigger. But the interesting thing is they are exactly the same.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, hold the same amount, yes.
SPEAKER_00:So sometimes glasses and those can be deceiving. They can, I mean, it can make us drink more or less, depending again, what what type of glass we have.
SPEAKER_03:But is the price the same?
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no. I I think you're paying for the grande price.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So if if you want to be a thrifty saver, just get the regular margarita.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the regular.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you'll get that the same as the grande, just so you know. And I don't know about other places, but I know it's that way at Dose. So um, just FYI. Um how how much do we love those family style serving places? So we we went to we went to Georgia, Savannah. Savannah, Savannah, Georgia, and we went for a half marathon. And the first mistake was we went to the south, the deep south, and we went a couple days before the half marathon because we wanted to try the food. That was a bad, bad idea. Bad idea. But we went to this place called Mrs. Wilkes Restaurant. It was this huge table. There's probably 10 people sitting in a table, and it was all family style. And I mean, I mean, all the fried foods, the worst, I mean, nothing was healthy. It was just, it was the most amazing food there ever was. And it was all family style. So the great thing is, is they'd keep bringing it. I mean, there was no end to it. As much as you could eat, they would keep bringing. But sometimes that's the problem with family style, is I'll get one more scoop of this, I'll get one more scoop of that. And they didn't have little spoons either. They had southern spoons, they were big old spoons that you could really um put it out there. Um, so again, those can be um dangerous as well. Um, we think, well, I'm getting a really good bargain, or it really works well. But really, when it comes to us eating, we tend to overeat those because we can get more. Um and you might notice even that if you even at home, if you put all the things on the table, you might eat more because it's there versus if it's in the kitchen and you have to get up and physically go get another plate. And sometimes you feel like a little bit more of a piggy when you have to get up and get a second plate versus just reaching over and grabbing a ladle and putting some on there. Um, so so those do uh make make a difference. Um and I mean and and and places do this on purpose because they want us to eat more. Um, that is their goal. Um, because of course they bring out the plate, they fill it up. Um, and if and if it wasn't if that plate wasn't completely full, what'd we say? What would we say?
SPEAKER_02:Complain.
SPEAKER_00:Complain. Where's the rest of my food? I want to get what I paid for, but did we need more is the question. And a lot of times we don't need more. Um, our servings get bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_03:Um, it's it's kind of like when my margaritas not filled all the way to the top. I feel like there I you could have filled that all the way.
SPEAKER_00:That was just a couple weeks ago when I mean I mean, literally, we're talking an inch. I mean, it might have been maybe an inch. And she went on and on about I cannot believe they didn't fill this up.
SPEAKER_02:That's a lot in a margarita glass.
SPEAKER_00:Huh?
SPEAKER_02:That's a lot in a margarita glass.
SPEAKER_00:It was probably a couple drinks. What were you saying, Renee?
SPEAKER_03:Drink a little waitress drank a little on the way, is what she said.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, gotcha.
SPEAKER_03:She well she got a drink on the way.
SPEAKER_00:She got thirsty. That happens. That happens.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They don't want to spill it.
SPEAKER_02:Let me just sip a salt missing, too.
SPEAKER_00:Let me just sip a little off the top. But but that, but that's exactly what we do. Now, now, uh did did that inch make a big difference?
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_00:Marguerite probably didn't notice the difference. I mean, you may not, you know, what happens when they bring all the rolls at at Roadhouse? They bring a whole basket of four rolls, and you know you can have endless baskets. What happens?
SPEAKER_03:You eat them.
SPEAKER_00:You eat them, and I want more.
SPEAKER_03:When your meal comes, you ask for more.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so that way when you have leftovers that you're taking home, you can go ahead and dump the whole basket in your to-go container and and take them with you.
SPEAKER_01:I we don't go to Roadhouse very often, but when we do, I limit myself to one roll. And do you know how hard it is? I do, but it is so hard. But I immediately, I immediately like eat it. I don't even wait for anything, I just eat it. But yeah, I always limit myself to one, and it is so hard to do.
SPEAKER_00:Because they're sitting there and they keep looking at you, like you can have another one. They are so hard. Because you could easily eat two, three, four, pretty easy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they're so good.
SPEAKER_00:They're great.
SPEAKER_03:You sure can look at that, and then you can buy the butter and the butter and and save all that money. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so so some tricks you can do is you know, swap the bigger plate for a little bit smaller plate. Maybe it's not, maybe it's not a dessert plate, maybe it's not the big plate, but a plate in um in between, and just to see um if you eat less, if if that's a thing, then maybe have smaller bowls. You know, I I don't think Melissa's on here, otherwise I'd I'd tell her, you know, she could get a smaller bowl for her bluebell, and then she'd eat less, but she's not even here to hear it. Um and then again, um, you know, you you instead of everything coming at the table, you have to, I mean, probably I don't know if a lot of people do this for Thanksgiving, but we do. Um, it's all in the kitchen um and on the bar and all that. We have to go in and fix our plate. Some people might have a big old table, we just don't have enough space to have it on the table. But that's really, again, you're gonna save some calories, save some uh seconds if you have to get up and go get it. Because typically you're gonna sit there and talk for a minute and then go, I'm not really hungry for it, or you forget, or you're like, I'll just save room for dessert. So you think about when you when you swap those things, it's not really about restricting, it's more about just a brain hack. It's just about um making your brain think it differently. Like you're walking into a room, it's painted a certain color. You go, wow, this is a large room. When really it's no bigger than the room next to it, which is maybe painted in a darker color so it looks smaller. It's it's really the same thing. And then we when we talk about portion control, again, it's visual. We can measure things if you want exact numbers and weights, but also, you know, we can if we have protein, does it fit in the palm of our hand? Is it veggies? Maybe it's it's two fifths, you know, amount our carbs, is it one cupped handful? So if it's cupped, is it is it uh fit in there? I mean, it's a healthy fat, our thumb. So, I mean, we can we can tell a lot from just using those portions without without measuring. Now, when we talk about protein, it's not like you're stacking it together, you know, it's not in your palm and you're having to hold it down, or or your carbs, it's not, you know, holding it like that. It's just whatever's gonna fit in there. So, you know, we can do that, we can go a long way with that without having to measure everything. It's kind of like when you're putting food on your plate. Say, okay, is that fit in my palm if it's a protein? Could it fit in in a cupped hand if it's carbs? If it's a healthy fat, my thumb. So those are just easy ways just to mentally see it and put it on your plate. And and two, you know, when we put it on there, however we serve it onto our plate, whatever size plate we have, we always want to kind of ask ourselves, is this portion enough? Not does it fill the plate, but is it enough? And be mindful of, you know, what size spoon am I using? What size ladle am I using? What size plate? What size container? If it's a if it's if you're taking your lunch to go, you know, you're fixing it for later that day, or you're prepping. Because again, if we use too big of a thing and we've measured everything out, we'll go, well, that's not enough food, even though it's plenty of food. Same thing with compartments. What if we have a three-compartment container and we only fill up one? And then we feel like, oh, well, I'm missing something. That's still a visual thing going, well, I need more food because there's two empty spots, and so we think, oh, I need more. So, so really the the challenge is just to understand how the brain works and how we see things visually when it comes to colors and and rooms and paints and all that stuff. It's no different when it comes to food, when it comes to the colors, the things we put on there, larger plate, smaller plate, how much we can fit in there, how much you know, extra room we have. Um, because you know, if you have a room and you have it full of furniture, it's gonna look really small. If you have that same size room um and you don't have much in there, it's gonna look a lot bigger. So it's it's the exact same principle, um, but it's just with food. Um, so our brain works the same way. Uh, it's it's no different whether it's that or this. So the challenge is just to be mindful of that. Um, and really just have fun with it over Thanksgiving, um, because that's a great time. Um, because we have all the foods, all the plates, all the all the utensils, all that, all the different colored things. Um, and just be mindful of it and just see, watch your family.
SPEAKER_03:And I mean, don't be mindful of it when it's going in my mouth.
SPEAKER_00:I wanna I'm gonna get a big ladle and a big plate and straps. Um again, I'm not saying don't, I'm just saying be mindful and um and watch how other people do it. Um, and because that's always kind of interesting. So um any thoughts, comments, or questions about our portion illusion. Now you see me, now you don't. That's that's what the food's gonna look like. Now you see me, now you don't. Um, but if anybody has any questions, thoughts, or comments, just let me know. So thank y'all.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Thank you. Bye.
SPEAKER_00:Have a great evening. And thank you to each of you for joining us on Healthy Hill this evening. And we'll look forward to seeing you right here next time on Healthy Ho.