title: Using photography in 'The Restaurant of the Future'. A useful way to assess portion selection and plate cleaning?
abstract: Laboratory-based studies of human dietary behaviour benefit from highly controlled conditions; however, this approach can lack ecological validity. Identifying a reliable method to capture and quantify natural dietary behaviours represents an important challenge for researchers. In this study, we scrutinised cafeteria-style meals in the 'Restaurant of the Future.' Self-selected meals were weighed and photographed, both before and after consumption. Using standard portions of the same foods, these images were independently coded to produce accurate and reliable estimates of (i) initial self-served portions, and (ii) food remaining at the end of the meal. Plate cleaning was extremely common; in 86% of meals at least 90% of self-selected calories were consumed. Males ate a greater proportion of their self-selected meals than did females. Finally, when participants visited the restaurant more than once, the correspondence between selected portions was better predicted by the weight of the meal than by its energy content. These findings illustrate the potential benefits of meal photography in this context. However, they also highlight significant limitations, in particular, the need to exclude large amounts of data when one food obscures another.
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK.
authors.forename: Elanor C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Hinton
authors.forename: Jeffery M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Brunstrom
authors.forename: Stephanie H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Fay
authors.forename: Laura L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ferriday
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: de Wijk
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004435:Eating; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010781:Photography / Q000379:methods*; D012147:Restaurants