低熱量飲食能減肥？它可能讓你更胖

Those “Low-Calorie” sections that are increasingly popping up in restaurant menus, according to a new study appear to have a backfire effect.
“低卡”飲食在當今的餐館裏非常流行，然而最新的一項研究表明，它可能和人們想象的不太一樣。

In a recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, placing low-calorie dishes into their own low-calorie category can cause consumers to instead choose higher calorie meals that could be making them fatter.
最近發表在《消費者研究期刊》上的研究表明，將低卡菜餚單獨列出來可能會促使顧客購買更高卡路里的餐點，而這非但對減肥無益，反而會增肥。

To Jeffrey Parker, an assistant professor of marketing at Georgia State University, the restaurant menu provides the perfect conditions for testing decision-making. When the Build Your Own Salad menus in New York began making an appearance in every corner deli, he had to wonder how that could affect consumer choice.
對於美國佐治亞州立大學市場教授助理傑弗裏·帕克來說，餐廳菜單爲測試顧客決策提供了極佳的條件。當紐約的各個角落的餐廳都提供着“計劃你自己的沙拉”服務時，他開始考慮是什麼影響了消費者的決策。

“And everyone was well, is that actually helping people make choices?” he asked. Together with Donald R. Lehmann, a Columbia Business professor, Parker hypothesized that placing calories next to dishes didn’t really help people make healthier choices and placing all those low-calorie dishes in their own section helps even less.
“大家都對這個服務反映良好，然而實際上是什麼在幫助我們做決策呢？”他問道。於是，和一位哥倫比亞商學教授唐納德·R·萊曼一起，帕克做出了假設。他認爲，將卡路里標在食物旁邊實際上不能幫人們做出更健康的選擇，而把所有低卡食物都放在一起收效更微。

“For a lot of people low-cal, healthy things kind of sound like not very big, not very filling, doesn’t taste very good,” he said. “Even if that’s not true, that’s the inference they have so they immediately go, ‘I don’t want that’ and then they choose from the rest of the menu which means they’re going to choose something that’s relatively high calorie.”
“對於大部分人來說，健康的食物聽起來總像是吃不飽，也不好吃。”他說，“即使這並不是真的，但是基於自己的推斷，人們還是會直接忽略掉低卡食品。他們會覺得‘我纔不想吃那個’，然後去從菜單剩下的食物中選擇，這就意味着他們會選擇一些相對來說卡路里較高的食物。”

Parker and Lehmann’s study was fairly simple. Participants were asked to select an item from a number of menus, which were randomly assigned. The first “traditional” menu looked much like a regular restaurant menu where dishes did not feature any special “Chef’s Choice” flags or caloric content. The second “calorie-posted” menu included caloric content next to dishes, while the third “calorie-organized” menu took it a step further and categorized low-calorie dishes in a separate section.
帕克和萊曼的研究相當簡單，參與者只需從菜單中隨機選擇一道菜餚即可，而這些菜單都是被隨機分發的。第一份“傳統”的菜單看起來很常規，沒有標註“主廚推薦”或者卡路里含量；第二份菜單在每道菜旁邊都標註了卡路里；而第三份則更進一步，把所有的低卡菜餚都放在了單獨的一欄。

Overall, on average, when low-calorie dishes were separated, participants chose dishes that contained 11 percent more calories. When calorie information was posted next to the dish, participants must have found the information helpful because they chose dishes that were 15 percent lower in calories. The average calorie selection for the traditional menu, however, was a whopping 1, 235 calories — almost half the FDA’s recommended daily limit. So, posting calorie content can help, but posting it in its own category is counter-productive.
總體來說，當低卡菜餚被分離開時，參與者會選擇包含多11%卡路里的菜餚；而當卡路里被明確標在菜餚旁邊時，由於受到這個信息的影響，參與者對卡路里的選擇低了15%。拿到傳統菜單的人們選擇的菜餚熱量則高達1235大卡——基本上達到了食品及藥物管理局（FDA）推薦的每日限量的一半。所以說，把卡路里含量標註出來是有益的，而把低卡菜餚單列一欄反會適得其反。

The low-calorie section was meant to mimic popular chain restaurant low-cal sections from Applebee’s, Red Robin and Chili’s. For instance, Applebee’s calls out its healthier options in a section titled “Under 550 Calories”, while Chili’s uses “Lighter Choices” to categorize its more nutritious options. Menu items also took their cue from places such as cheesecake Factory (which boasts more than 200 menu items), Olive Garden, Red Lobster and more.
低卡菜單意在模仿如蘋果蜂、紅羅賓和小辣椒等生意紅火的連鎖餐廳的模式。例如，蘋果蜂有一個菜單叫做“低於550大卡”，小辣椒也用“更輕盈的選擇”菜單來標註更有營養的選項。菜單上的餐點同樣受了如芝士工廠、橄欖花園、紅龍蝦等餐廳的啓發。

What they found was that, even after controlling for price and age, people are really not interested in healthy options. If you’re in a restaurant pressed for time you’re quickly looking for ways to eliminate options, and more often than not, eliminating the “Healthy Options” section is an easy choice.
他們也發現，控制了價格和年齡之後，人們還是對健康選項不太感興趣；尤其是當人們時間緊張時，他們快速瀏覽選項時還是會輕而易舉地過濾掉“健康之選”那一欄。

Surprisingly, when a low-calorie dish isn’t separated from the menu, but placed within its appropriate section (a vegetarian sandwich goes under Sandwiches) it has a better chance of being selected, says Parker.
帕克說，出人意料的是，如果低卡菜餚沒有從菜單上分出來，而是正常排在菜單裏的話，人們往往會更樂於選擇。

“If this consumer wants a barbecue bacon cheeseburger, he is going to have to accept the high calorie count that comes with it,” writes Parker. “Assume that a low-calorie option is also in the consumer’s consideration set (perhaps a turkey burger). The consumer knows that he has to give up something in taste to get fewer calories, but a turkey burger is still a burger. Thus, the likelihood that it will be chosen increases simply due to it being included in the consideration set.”
“如果顧客想選擇培根芝士漢堡，那他就得接受隨之而來的高熱量。”帕克說，“假設顧客也曾考慮過低卡選項（可能是火雞肉漢堡），那他就知道爲了攝入少一點的熱量，他得放棄一點口感的追求。但是漢堡還是漢堡，因此，既然被考慮過了，那它被選擇的可能性還會增加。”

Surprisingly, Parker says, if customers were given more time, selecting a low-calorie meal would increase. This would ensure they had more time to peruse options and keep customers re-thinking that Grilled Chicken Sandwich with 610 calories, versus the Caribbean Crispy Chicken Salad with 1375 calories.
但是帕克也說，如果顧客有更多的時間選擇，那他們點低卡餐點的機率還會增加。有更多的時間意味着他們能夠更仔細考慮，這樣他們也會重新想想是選擇610大卡的烤雞三明治，還是1375大卡的加勒比脆皮雞沙拉。