Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

In this Ask MetaFilter thread, someone wants to know why the food at their favorite restaurant makes them feel full despite the small quantities. He even goes so far as to wonder whether they’re adding some mysterious “fullness powder” to the food.

Imagine the demand for such a powder if it existed! I’m not sure why restaurants would use it—they want you to eat more food, after all—but you could make a killing selling it to dieters.

Sadly, the consensus seems to be that a less mysterious substance is causing the feeling of fullness: butter—lots of butter, and other fats. Someone posted this great quote from Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain:

“Butter. I don’t care what they tell you they’re putting or not putting in your food at your favorite restaurant; chances are, you’re eating a ton of butter. In a professional kitchen, it’s almost always the first and last thing in the pan. We saute in a mixture of butter and oil for that nice, brown carmelized color, and we finish nearly every sauce with it (we call this monter au buerre); that’s why my sauce tastes richer and creamier and mellower than yours, why it’s got that nice, thick, opaque consistency. Believe me, there’s a big crock of softened butter on almost every cook’s station.”

While this might be a good reason to avoid eating out too often, I think there’s another message here: the low-fat (or no fat) diet foods aren’t always good for making you feel full, so you might want to try a bit of butter to add bulk to a meal. Just don’t use as much as your favorite restaurant uses…