Restaurants like to serve you cocktails before you even crack open your menu. Why? Because alcohol stimulates your appetite. Get your drink on before you order and you're more likely to end up ordering more food -- and probably less-healthy options to quiet your now-growling stomach.
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They paint with purpose
Restaurants pour big bucks into interior design, and it's not just because they're fans of Martha Stewart. "Pay close attention to the colors of the restaurant's walls, plates, and so on," Palinski says. "Warm colors like red and yellow stimulate the desire to eat."
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They know how to tempt you
Those red walls aren't the only way restaurants get you to eat more. Here's another example: the dessert tray. If you see the brownie cheesecake topped with whipped cream and four kinds of sauce, you're more likely to order it. So beware of cheese carts and dessert trays, and remember: The samples they're showing you are usually either very old (gross) or very fake (and plastic never tastes good).
Going out to eat is practically our national pastime. In fact, according to United Press International, the average American eats 4.8 restaurant meals per week.
What can we say? We like restaurants. They make regular meals feel a little fancy. It's nice to get gussied up and have someone cook (and clean up) for us. And while it's possible to eat healthy meals for reasonable prices at restaurants, it's not easy. Why? Because restaurants don't exactly want you to eat healthy meals at reasonable prices.
"The restaurant industry has spent millions of dollars and years of research to understand human behavior and how it can subliminally get us to order more and eat more," says Erin Palinski, RD, CDE, CPT, a registered dietician and author of the forthcoming "Belly Fat Diet for Dummies."
After all, the more you eat, the more money they make. But don't worry -- we uncovered these 10 tricks that restaurants use to overfill your belly (and drain your wallet) so that you'll have the facts the next time you go out to eat.
