One of the dietary dangers of free food is that is
free and really convenient. But I don't think that's necessarily the real
danger.
Some research I did with my Food and Brand Lab up in Cornell a year or so
back suggests that the real danger with free food is that we do not code it as
a meal. In one study we showed that people who were given free food at lavish
reception, coded it as having less calories (than when they paid for it).
What’s worse was that they they still believed they were entitled to a dinner
afterward. Because it was free, it “didn’t really count” in their diet.
What calories do you "forget to count"? Leftovers, crumbs, food you eat standing up?
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