Starting a meal with a low-calorie salad can help a person eat less. Recent research has found that people who consume three cups of a salad, totalling 100 calories, tend to eat fewer calories overall than people who do not eat a salad at the start of their meals. Researchers from the Pennsylvania State University, USA, examined whether eating a salad as a first course had any effect on intake of the main meal by studying 42 women. They asked the women to eat one of the 6 different types of salads before meals, or no salad at all. The researchers then measured how many calories they consumed throughout the entire meal. None of the women participating in the research were trying to gain or lose weight. The researchers found that women who ate 1-1/2 cups of salad (50 calories) ate 7 percent less during their meal than when they did not have a salad. Eating 3 cups of salad (100 calories) decreased meal intake by 12 percent. The researchers noted that salad-eaters stopped eating their main course earlier than they would otherwise because they believe they have eaten a lot of food, despite the fact that their salad contains fewer calories than the main course. In addition, the salad requires a lot of chewing, adding time to the meal, and again reinforcing the idea they have eaten enough. Also, portion size seemed to matter. When people were offered 100 calories' worth of salad in two different portions – 1.5 cups and 3 cups - they ate less during the main course after the larger portion, suggesting the bigger the better. The implication of this study is that when selecting a first course, consumers should be aware that both the energy density and the portion size of the food affect the amount of energy they consume in the meal.
Journal of the American Dietetic Association,
October 2004