一个人吃饭是否有助于节制饮食?

You're feeling full but here's the waiter with the dessert menu. You're about to say "No thanks" when your friend orders baked cheesecake. And soon you're saying: "I'll have one too, thanks." Studies repeatedly show that what we eat is highly influenced by who we eat with. The most recent research, presented at last week's American Heart Association meeting, found that the chance of a "diet lapse" was 60% when eating with others. The research followed 150 people trying to lose weight or keep weight off, for a year, using phones and an app to capture what and where they ate. Those in the study were asked to limit their calories. They were most successful in keeping to their diet when they ate alone. Work, with its temptations of cake for somebody's birthday, led to a 40% chance of a diet lapse. The car was the safest place, with only a 30% chance of overeating.

你感觉饱了，但服务生却站在一旁拿着一份甜点菜单。你准备说"不用了，谢谢"，但你的朋友却点了烤芝士蛋糕。很快你就会说："给我也来一份吧，谢谢。"研究多次表明：和我们一起用餐的人会影响我们吃什么。上周在美国心脏协会会议上，有人提出最新的一项研究发现：当和别人一起用餐时，"饮食失调"的几率是60%。该研究对150位想要减肥的人进行了为期一年的调查，使用手机或应用程序捕捉他们吃了什么，以及在哪儿吃的。研究人员要求受试者减少卡路里摄入量。当他们一个人吃饭的时候，他们最能控制自己的饮食。工作和某人生日蛋糕的诱惑使得人们"饮食失调"的几率为40%。车是最安全的地方，在车上过度饮食的几率只有30%。

But it's annoying that dining with family or friends could make us eat more. A study of 63 adults who kept seven-day dairies found that eating with people increased meal sizes by 44% and participants ate more fat than when they ate alone. The lead researcher, US physiologist John de Castro, suggested that eating alone would reduce caloric intake and improve diets. In another study he showed that meals eaten with spouses and family had more calories and were eaten faster, while those with friends were as large but lasted longer. This was true for all meals of the day, and if men were at the table, women tended to eat more than usual. So although eating with friends or family is one of the joys of life, if you want to watch your weight, should you eat on your own?

但是与家人或朋友吃饭会让我吃的更多这一点着实令人烦恼。有一项研究有63位参与者，他们写了7天的日记，研究发现：相比一个人单独就餐，和别人一起吃饭时他们的饭量增加了44%，而且摄入的脂肪量也更多了。该研究的主研究员--美国心理学家约翰·德·卡斯特罗指出：一个人吃饭会减少卡路里摄入量、改善人们的饮食。在另一项研究中，他表明：和妻子/老公、家人一起吃饭，摄入的卡路里量更多，但吃饭的速度更快，而与朋友一起吃饭，饭菜也很丰盛，但吃的时间会更久。一日三餐都是如此，如果饭桌上有男性，女性往往会比平常吃的更多。所以，虽然与朋友或家人吃饭是人生一大乐事，但如果你想控制体重，最好还是一个人吃吧。

We seem to be compelled to model how we eat on those around us; not only on what they eat but on how big they are. A study in the journal Appetite showed that in the presence of an actor in a fat suit, people in a restaurant ate 31.6% more pasta, whatever she ordered. If she ordered salad, they served themselves 43.5% less salad.

我们似乎被迫去模仿周围人的饮食；不仅模仿他们吃什么，而且还模仿他们饭量。Appetite杂志上刊登的一项研究表明：穿着肥硕西服的演员出现在餐厅时，不管她点了什么，餐厅里的人都会多吃31.6%的披萨。如果她点了沙拉，那他们会减少43.5%的沙拉摄入量。