According to findings published the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, college students with high body mass indexes (BMI) tend to consider larger food portions as acceptable, and therefore consume significantly more calorie-rich foods.
The small study, of 51 students found that when allowed to serve themselves, the students with a high BMI chose "substantially larger" portion sizes for 10 of the 15 foods in the study. Some of the foods included potato chips, tortilla chips, pudding, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, water and pop.
Researchers found that participants chose significantly larger portion sizes for high -carbohydrate foods compared to high-fat foods.
In addition, women tended to estimate lower portions of the high calorie high-fat and high-carbohydrate foods, suggesting women may be better than men at regulating portions sizes. This difference may be due to the fact that the diet industry generally targets women.
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