Beware of This Deceiving Dessert

Don't fall for the cherry on top. Adding nutritious garnishes to unhealthy foods throws off your mind’s calorie calculator, finds new research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

In the study, people’s calorie estimates dropped from 481 to 405 when strawberries were thrown on top of a dish of ice cream. The study participants also ate 35 percent more junk food if it included a healthy addition.

Because your mind wants to justify unhealthy snacking—and because “nutritious” equates to “low-cal” in your brain—lobbing a few healthy pieces of fruit onto your sundae tricks you into thinking the dish isn’t so bad for you, explains study coauthor Ying Jiang, Ph.D., of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

If you want to fool your brain in a healthy way, eat your dessert from a small plate. The image of a packed dish—even a tiny one—makes you feel like you’re eating a lot, and so can help you consume 22 percent less calories without sacrificing satisfaction, research shows.

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