Greater food variety at buffets may lead to overeating
· News-MedicalHow a VR buffet works
Participants wore a VR headset and entered a VR buffet restaurant where they were able to select foods as they would at an actual buffet using videogame-style controllers in each hand. The system recorded the weight and calories of the selected meal along with the quantity of foods, including high-energy-density and low-energy-density foods.
Variety affects eating behavior
Participants who visited the buffet with nine food items selected just over 600 grams of food. People at the buffet with either 18 or 27 food items selected more than 900 grams of food. Although people took more food when variety increased, there appeared to be a general upper limit to the total weight of food people selected, according to Long, who earned his doctorate from Penn State in 2025.
Despite the upper limit of food weight that people served themselves, the calories selected did not follow the same pattern. Participants who visited the buffet with nine food items selected an average of 850 calories of food. That rose to 1,320 calories - roughly 55% more - when 18 foods were offered, and to nearly 1,500 calories when 27 foods were available. That amounts to a 75% increase compared with what the same participants took from the nine-item buffet.
"When presented with more options, people became more likely to choose higher calorie-dense foods," Long said. "In the U.S., many people consume more calories than they need, and the wide variety of foods in our environment may nudge us to eat more than we otherwise would.
Preventing overeating
The researchers surveyed participants about their personalities and other factors that could affect food selection. These surveys included a person's tendency to seek out food variety, whether a person engaged in emotional eating, and their reluctance to try new foods.
Redesigning the eating environment
In the long run, Masterson and Long said they hope this research will go beyond promoting awareness and help us redesign the ways we encounter food in the world around us.
"Experts have been warning people for decades to watch what they eat, and the obesity epidemic has only increased," Masterson said. "Clearly, our food environment is overriding our ability to limit our diets."
Long agreed, and repeated that the eventual goal of this work is improving the food environment for everyone.
"By understanding the factors that drive our choices, we hope to be able to design eating environments that support health rather than overconsumption," he said.
Other Penn State researchers who contributed to this study include Kathleen Keller, Helen A. Guthrie Chair and professor of nutritional sciences; and Barbara Rolls, distinguished professor of nutritional sciences also contributed to this research. Paige Cunningham, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell and former postdoctoral researcher at Penn State, also contributed to this research.
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