What are the main colors used in McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and most fast food restaurants – diners, included? Answer:  Red and gold.

Restaurant Décor Is Planned For A Reason You Might Not Guess

Restaurant decor isn’t an accident, especially in chain restaurants keyed into behavioral and eating psychology.  Restaurants are designed with the intention of getting you to eat and run or to keep you at the table longer so you order more.

Speed Eating

Fast food and high turnover restaurants are decorated for speed eating.  No soothing pastels, sound absorbing surfaces, or soft music to be seen or heard. Instead you’ll find loud music, noise reflecting off of hard surfaces, and high arousal color schemes — frequently red and gold.

It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to communicate to your brain that you’re full. A red, gold, and noisy environment makes you gulp your food and reach for more way before 20 minutes have come and gone. Or, it helps convince you to gulp down your food and make your exit pretty quickly. The rapid table turnovers allow the restaurant to pack more people in – and then serve more food – quickly!

Leisurely Dining

On the other hand, people tend to linger at restaurants with low lighting, soft music, flowers, and tablecloths.  The white tablecloths and soft music of “fancy” restaurants make it pleasant to linger longer — and order another glass of wine, dessert, coffee, or after dinner drink. The attentive waitstaff obligingly offers you more and more options — and you’re likely to agree. In this type of eating environment you end up ordering and eating more than you had planned.

Know your setting:  pace yourself in the speed environment and avoid the temptation to keep ordering in the relaxed environment.

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Why?  By slowing down you allow the feeling of fullness to register and it may even mean that you eat fewer calories. You might even have time to really taste and enjoy your food, too – although Mom might say it’s just good manners.

Is It Gone Before You Realize You’ve Eaten It?

Do you wolf your food down so quickly that it’s gone before you realize you’ve eaten it all – and, to boot, you’re still hungry and staring at an empty plate?

According to an article in the New York Times, studies show that people who eat quickly eat more calories than they would if they ate a bit more slowly. The people who ate more slowly also felt fuller.

A study showed that the hormones that give you a feeling of fullness, or satiety, are more pronounced when you eat slowly. People in the study who were given identical servings of ice cream released more of those hormones when they ate the ice cream in 30 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

You Might Eat Less

Eating slowly leads to eating less, too – not just because your plate is cleared before all the food is gone because everyone else is tired of waiting for you to finish.

According to an article published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association people who ate at a slow pace compared to when they ate very quickly said they were fuller and ended up eating about 10% fewer calories.

An analysis of surveys completed by 3287 adults ages 30-69, found that combining the two behaviors of eating until full and eating quickly can have a significant impact on being overweight

Stroll, Don’t Race

Haven’t you ever said, “I shouldn’t have had that second cookie (or third) as your stomach begins to expand like a balloon?

It can take up to 20 minutes for your body to register that it’s full.   The problem is that during that interval when you’ve really had enough food but don’t necessarily recognize it, a lot of us continue to shovel food into our mouths – and end up feeling absolutely stuffed.

Do what Mom said.  Slow down, take your time eating, and chew. Give your body a chance to figure out if it really needs more food.  Then maybe you won’t have to take a nap – or unbutton your jeans.

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