Why should you choose dessert first? Is dessert your favorite part of eating? Are you a person who can not stop thinking about dessert? According to a recent study, this does not have to be a weakness of yours. Choosing the sweet part before the rest of your meal could help you choose healthier options.
Do we vary our choice online and in real life?
The research, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, proved how the order of presentation of the food affected the choice of the same and carried out the experiment both in a cafeteria and in online orders.
The researchers tested the food options of 134 volunteers in a buffet line. In an experiment, they were first presented with a dessert seen as ” indulgent ” (cheesecake), before seeing the rest of the options for the main course: an “indulgent” option of fried fish with tartar sauce and French fries, or a “healthy” option of grilled chicken fajitas with a small green salad.
When the sweet dessert was first offered, people chose the healthiest main course and accompaniment almost 69% of the time. But when they saw it in the end, they chose healthy dishes only 31% of the time. In contrast, when the healthiest dessert (a mix of fresh fruit) was offered first, the main course and healthy accompaniment were only chosen 46% of the time.
This same trend also occurred in online orders. When the first sweet dessert was shown, 56% of the participants chose a lighter main dish, and only 44% chose the healthier main dish if they first saw the healthy dessert. It is one of the best tips to choose dessert first.
Choosing a cheesecake could make you consume fewer calories
The calorie count for the meal with sweet dessert and healthy dishes was lower than when the dessert was healthy and the main dishes were more caloric. In particular, we are talking about 496 calories compared to 865. So it is possible that you are eating fewer calories when you choose the cheesecake.
This is due to the belief that if we choose a healthier dessert first (fruit), then you will make less healthy choices in the rest of the dishes. ” Healthy foods can indicate progress towards a goal and, therefore, make people more likely to take some license to choose less healthy dishes,” the study’s author commented. It is one of the best tips to choose dessert first.
That is to say, your mind thinks that you already made a good choice betting on a healthy dessert, so you take the liberty of giving yourself a small tribute in the rest of the dishes. In the same way, it is applied in the other option. If you have already “sinned” in dessert, your mind tries to choose healthier dishes to compensate. Who was going to tell us that choosing a brownie first could help us to make better decisions!
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