正在进行减肥计划而要控制每顿摄入食物的人们现在又有了一种“非典型”的秘密武器——大号餐叉。
Diners who use them eat less than those with smaller forks, according to a study.
根据一样调查显示，使用大号餐叉的人要比使用使用小号餐叉的人每顿少吃掉一些食物。
While previous research examined portion sizes and their effect on how much is eaten, researchers at the University of Utah in the U.S. assessed the impact of bite sizes.
在这之前，曾有一项调查研究了每口食物的体积大小以及这位与进食者所吃掉食物多少的影响，美国犹他大学的研究者们研究者发现了每口食物大小所产生的不同作用。
The two-day experiment was conducted in an Italian restaurant. Tables were set with either a bigger fork or a smaller one – holding 20 per cent more and 20 per cent less food than the restaurant’s regular size.
研究者们在一家意大利餐馆进行了为期两天的实验，餐桌上放置着两组餐具，一套中叉子较大，另一套中则偏小，叉子的大小直接决定了使用其“叉”起食物的量，大号的叉子比一般餐叉能多拾起百分之二十的食物，而小号的则要少百分之二十。
Each plate of food was weighed before it went out to a customer and when it came back to calculate how much food was left over. Diners given bigger forks ate less, leaving more on their plates.
每个盘子的食物在正式端上桌之前都被称了重量，在客人用餐完毕后，盘子被端了回来，研究者们又称取了剩下食物的重量。他们发现，使用大号叉子的顾客吃得要更少下，剩在盘子里的食物也要更多一些。
The authors of the study found that fork size helped diners see how far along they were toward finishing.
这篇研究报告的作者们发现，叉子的大小可以帮助吃饭的人估量他们现在已经吃了多少，距离吃完还有什么样一个距离。