They then presented the participants with Delboeuf illusions, including pizzas on trays and images of inedible objects, such as black circles inside circles and hubcaps on tires.

Related: 5:2 and other intermittent fasting diets could raise risk of diabetes, scientists warn To test their hypothesis, the team tested the Delboeuf illusion on participants who had eaten an hour before the experiment or hadn't eaten for three hours before, according to Scientific American. The team behind the study, which was published in the Journal of Consumer Research, surmised that the Delboeuf illusion explained the different behavior.īut in a paper published recently in the journal Appetite, researchers Noa Zitron-Emanuel and Tzvi Ganel at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev called this apparent association between the Delboeuf illusion and food into question. They found individuals poured more soup in larger bowls, on average, than in smaller bowls. Similarly, in a 2012 study researchers asked participants to serve themselves soup in bowls of different sizes. A 2014 study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that due to the Delboeuf illusion, participants overestimated the diameter of food on plates with wider rims compared with those with thinner rims. This theory has been presented in a number of studies to explain our portion sizing. But if we place the same amount of food on a larger plate, we will feel as though we've eaten less-making us prone to overeating later on. When it comes to dieting, the idea is that by piling up a small plate with food, we will convince our brain we have eaten a large amount. It features two filled circles of the same size, but with one appearing smaller because of its surroundings. The original illusion shows how our brain can become confused by the size of objects depending on their context. The study examines a phenomenon known as the Delboeuf illusion in relation to food.

But it's probably false, according to research. Eat off a small plate to trick your brain into feeling full-it's a common weight loss tip espoused by so-called diet and fitness experts online.