(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) By Ann Lukits

How much food people consume can be influenced by subtle cues about weight that aren't consciously perceived, according to a novel chocolate-tasting study in the journal Appetite.

The research involved two experiments in Switzerland. In one test, 95 volunteers, who ranged in age from 16 to 74 years old, participated in five-minute sessions in which they were instructed to help themselves from a bowl of chocolates and then complete taste evaluations. Just outside of the participants' range of vision was a computerscreen displaying a well-known artwork.

During a tasting by 47 volunteers, the computerscreen displayed an image of three extremely thin humanlike figures in an Alberto Giacometti sculpture. For the other 48 participants, the image displayed was of a Mark Rothko painting of two different-colored, horizontally arranged rectangles.

When the Rothko painting was displayed, people consumed on average 6.4 chocolates per person. That compared with 4.7 pieces of chocolate consumed when the Giacometti sculptures were displayed. The researchers said most participants didn't notice the artwork on the computer screens, according to questionnaires completed after the tasting.

A second experiment involved 78 new volunteers, ages 19 to 82, who were invited for individual chocolate-tasting sessions. Thirty-eight of the participants completed questionnaires about gender, age and weight before the five-minute tasting sessions. The other 40 people completed the questionnaire after the sessions. Chocolate consumption averaged 4.5 pieces when the surveys were done before the tasting, and six pieces when the questions were answered afterward. About two-thirds of the participants in both experiments were women.

Caveat: No gender differences were identified in the first experiment. In the second, indicating one's weight before the tasting reduced chocolate consumption only in women.

Title: Reduced food intake after exposure to subtle weight-related cues