Cutting Food into Smaller Pieces Helps Weight Management

TEMPE, Ariz.Cutting calorie-dense foods into multiple bite-size pieces helps dieters feel more satiated and elicit better portion control compared to eating a single, uncut portion of the food, according to new research that will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) in Zurich.

Researchers at Arizona State University designed their study based on a 1989 animal study involving rats.  In that study, rats were trained in a T-maze, with small pellets in one arm of the and one large pellet in the other arm. Results showed rats preferred and ran faster for the arm associated with the multiple (30) 10 mg pellets than that associated with the single 300 mg food pellet. This shows that foods in greater numbers may be more rewarding to animals than an equicaloric, single food pellet.

For the new study, the ASU investigated the association of small portions on humans. A sample of 301 college students was given either a whole bagel or one cut into quarters. Twenty minutes after the bagel was consumed, subjects were told that they could eat as much or as little from a complimentary test lunch. Any leftover bagel and test meal was then recorded.

Subjects who received the single, uncut bagel ate more calories from both the bagel and the test meal than those who received the multiple-piece bagel. This shows that food cut into multiple pieces may be more satiating than a single, uncut portion of food.

Cutting up energy-dense meal foods into smaller pieces may be beneficial to dieters who wish to make their meal more satiating while also maintaining portion control," said Devina Wadhera, the lead author.