Inclusion in a meal of a large number of different dishes leads to the fact that the brain is deceived, considering that the body consumes less food than it actually does. Studying the effect of the "buffet", scientists came to the conclusion that people usually eat 10% more if they offer a varied menu.

Experts have established that the more varied the meal, the more a person eats. For a year this can lead to a set of almost ten kilograms of excess weight. Experiments have shown that a large number of different dishes creates an optical illusion, in which the final portion size seems to a person less than it actually is. The inability of the brain to correctly estimate how many people eat food at a time can partially explain the crisis associated with the obesity epidemic. Researchers emphasize that a healthy person should not limit the variety of their food, it is simply important to always remember that the eyes can deceive.

Variety makes people involuntarily superimpose themselves, - scientists write in a press release of the University of Minnesota.

"Given that people have the ability to eat everything they put to themselves, our discovery of brain errors in assessing the amount of food is important for consumers". Pieces of the same food, combined together, visually look larger than different dishes stacked on one plate. Experts checked their discovery on 150 students. They were all shown a standard portion of the same monochrome sweets. When they were asked to type the same portion, but colored sweets, students were most often mistaken in the direction of increasing. On average, they imposed 10% more sweets.

Medicinform. Net.