Photo of
January 26, 2015

We’ve all been there. You arrive at the restaurant determined to order the salad, with a few glasses of sparkling water your only beverage. Hours later you roll out after chowing down a burger and chips and almost a full bottle of wine along with the entire dessert you bought intending to share with your friend.

How did it happen? Do you really have such little willpower? If you’re nodding along in wry recognition, think back to where in the restaurant you were sitting. Was it a dark corner both? Near the bar? Near the tv? All of these things may have contributed to your gluttonous behaviour.

According to a recent article from the New Scientist, factors such as lighting, windows and glass shapes and sizes can affect how much a customer eats and drinks.

 

Tracking customers

From New Scientist visiting 27 restaurants across the USA, mapping the layout of each one and tracking what each customer ordered, a number of surprising facts emerged.

Customers who sat by a window or in a well lit part of the restaurant ordered healthier food than those sitting in a dark table or booth.

People sitting farthest from the front door ate the fewest salads and were 73% more likely to order dessert

A table of four sitting within two tables of the bar drank an average of three more beers or alcoholic drinks with a mixer than those sitting just one table further away.

The closer a table was to a tv screen, the more fried food a person bought and people sitting at high top bar tables ordered more salads and fewer desserts.

Wine glasses

It wasn’t just eating that was influenced by environmental factors. The New Scientist brought 85 wine drinkers into their lab, gave them different sized glasses and told them to either sit or stand. Their observation showed that people pour 12% less wine into taller glasses than into wider glasses that hold the same amount.

Looking down at a glass makes it appear more full than looking at it from roughly the same level as the liquid. As a result, the wine drinkers poured 12% less into a glass that was sitting in a table compared to one they were holding and because red wine is easier to see than white wine, the drinkers poured 9% less red wine into whatever glass they were holding.

Over indulging

So, from examining the results of these studies, it appears the key to avoid over indulging in restaurants is to sit beside the window in a high chair as far away from the television or bar as possible and drink your wine from tall glasses.

But wouldn’t that be a little boring? While sitting in your high stool stabbing at your salad in the cold light of the window, you have to admit: that dark corner booth look like they’re having lots more fun.