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It’s All How You Slice It

Cutting up food could help you cut extra calories.

Wish you had a magic wand that would make you feel satisfied with a smaller serving of food? You do—and it’s in your knife drawer. A recent Japanese study found that slicing a serving of food into fine strips can make it look significantly larger. And that may translate to you scooping less onto your plate—and into your mouth.

In the study, participants were asked to examine a serving of surimi (ground fish gel) or raw carrots in three forms: a whole chunk, cut into fine strips, or diced into small cubes. They then had to estimate how much mass each serving contained. When the food they looked at was left whole (a block of surimi or a whole carrot), the subjects were fairly accurate with their estimates. But when the food was sliced into strips or chunks, their estimates were up to 27% higher than the actual amount they were shown.

An easy way to make this illusion work for you? Rethink your meal prep. Instead of serving up a slab of steak, slice the meat into small strips and use it in a stir-fry to eat less meat—and more veggies.