"What happened in eating is that no matter how much people give you to eat, you'll eat the whole thing," Ariely says. "So it's really a question of how much you start with. Because we've also tested this — we looked at what people end up with and how much they throw away. People eat everything you give them. But if you give people a mechanism to limit what they're going to have for food later on, people actually eat less as a consequence."
Research is showing that the effort to educate us about the calories in our food does NOT alter our food choices. In particular, that we tend to eat all of the food we are served, regardless of the nutrition information. Could it be that the great majority are not aware of the body's sensations of satiety and continue eating all of the food served (and paid for!) even when it is too much? This research discusses the fact that people may choose to eat fewer calories when they are given choices about altering the calorie content of what they eat by choosing a different side item. Maybe taking a few seconds to consider another choice helps to increase our awareness just enough.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/28/132413126/oh-that-hamburger-is-900-calories-yes-please?sc=fb&cc=fp
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