Key to healthier meals? Pick a ‘naughty but nice’ pud first

PUTTING puddings at the start of a cafeteria queue or buffet table could help diners eat fewer calories – and help to beat the obesity epidemic, experts believe.

US researchers found that choosing an indulgent dessert before your first course makes you select a healthier main.

University students and staff in the experiment who first took lemon cheesecake went on to pick lower-calorie mains and side dishes – meaning they ate 30 per cent fewer calories than those who began by selecting fresh fruit.

Diners who chose cheesecake first were also twice as likely to order the lighter main dish of grilled chicken fajitas and a small salad than fish and chips compared to diners who picked the cheesecake at the end of the cafeteria queue.

Three online experiments that mimicked a food delivery website had similar findings, except when participants were distracted.

This suggested that menus and buffets should be reorganised to tempt diners to subconsciously pick a healthier option.

Lead study author Dr Martin Reimann, assistant professor of marketing at Arizona university, said: “Diners who picked the healthier dessert may have thought they already had done a good deed for their bodies so they deserved higher calorie food further down the cafeteria line.

“The title of this paper is, ‘If I Indulge First, I Will Eat Less Overall’, which we consider to be a very short summary of our research.”

Dr Reimann said the study showed that people could be influenced through “simple, cheap and easily implementable” means to pick healthy meals and that this could aid public health.

The findings could also be used in the design of restaurant menus and of food delivery apps and webpages that are booming in popularity.

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.