Can Tableware Design Change Eating Habits and Encourage Weight Reduction?

Overview

Overweight and obesity are serious public health issues worldwide. Among the possible solutions for reducing overweight, design offers an opportunity to change eating and food environments. Tableware design in particular could be used to tackle the overweight problem. As part of my research on the effects of tableware design on eating habits, I have developed a crinkly plate prototype with the aim of changing eating habits by visually increasing the amount of food on the plate. The prototype has been tested in two experiments with 200 volunteers. The experiments were designed to measure how the form of the plate affects the amount of food being placed on it. Results show that the crinkly plate can create a visual illusion of actual amount of food; however, further research is necessary, for example, testing the crinkly plate with participants in a home-based setting.

Keywords:

• design
• tableware
• tableware design
• plate design
• eating habits
• overweight
• obesity

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Associate Professor Signe Mezinska from the University of Latvia for input and support in this research. I also thank Aivars Cirulis from Lund University for helping with the data analysis. I sincerely thank ‘Rigas Dzirnavnieks’ for providing the food products for the study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nauris Cinovics

Nauris Cinovics is currently studying for a PhD at the Art Academy of Latvia researching into tableware design opportunities for changing people's eating habits, to tack the problem of obesity. Throughout the study period, he has been working as an art director in the field of graphic design.