P120 - Draw Your Dinner: Examining Perceptions of Meal Size Using Incrementally Reduced Plate Sizes in College Students

Abstract

Background (Background, Rationale, Prior Research, and/or Theory): The ways in which food is presented can influence the amount of food selected and consumed as well as how accurately those meals are perceived and recalled. Hence, if the method of food recall is modified through the use of incrementally changing plate sizes for participants to draw their meals on, they may align their food sizes to fit the plate rather than accurately reporting portion sizes. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between plate size and meal recall through drawn food representations over a 10-week period. Study Design, Setting, Participants, Intervention: Using a longitudinal design, we had 293 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory Nutrition lecture course draw their last night's meal for 10 weeks on either a 10.5” diameter plate, an 8.5” diameter plate, or a 10.5” diameter plate that was reduced in size by .2 inches every week. One hundred ninety-five students who completed >60% of their meal recalls, including the first and final weeks, were included for analysis. Outcome Measures and Analysis: One-way and two-way ANOVA as well as independent samples t-tests were used to compare total area, % of plate coverage, individual food group food portion size across Large, Small, and Incrementally-changing plates. Results: Participants provided with 10.5” diameter plates generally drew significantly more food on them than participants with 8.5” diameter plates (P = < .001). Participants provided with incrementally shrinking plates drew meal sizes similar to the large plates at week 1 and drew meal sizes similar to small plates by week 10. Conclusions and Implications: These findings suggest that people's conceptualization of previous meal consumption may be influenced by the size of the plate on which they draw upon, suggesting that the external environment can modify participant drawn recall of their meal sizes. Funding: None.