Your choice of
kitchen utensils - bowls, plates, pots and pans - not only says a lot about your character, they may also affect your family's eating habits.
If this sounds a little far-fetched, don't stop reading just yet. This claim is the result of some fairly stringent research carried out by scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Size and colour were shown to have an impact on how much people ate, throwing into questions whether refurbishing your kitchen cupboards could help you to lose weight.
Researchers asked 225 student participants to pour tomato soup into one of seven different sized bowls. Larger bowls resulted in people overserving by up to 31 per cent than normal.
Changing the colour of a plate or tablecloth also proved to have an effect on portion size. A high contrast serving dish reduced servings by 21 per cent, while changing the colour of the tablecloth on which food was served saw a ten per cent reduction in portion size.
Commenting on the findings, which are published in the Journal of Consumer Research, lead study author Koert van Ittersum explained: "The bigger your dinnerware, the bigger your portion. If you use larger plates, you could end up serving nine per cent to 31 per cent more than you typically would.
"In the midst of hard-wired perceptual biases, a straightforward action would be to simply eliminate large dinnerware - replace our larger bowls and plates with smaller ones or contrast ones."
However, don't overlook more substantial changes to your kitchen in 2012, especially if one of your new year's resolutions is to host more dinner parties.
Hill House Interiors directors Helen Bygraves and Jenny Weiss believe more people should embrace open plan living in their kitchen, featuring a centre island for a more sociable atmosphere.
