Will the Real Calories Please Stand Up

1,041: Calories people think a cheeseburger has when they have just seen an organic fruit salad.

780: Calories estimated in the same cheeseburger after seeing a decadent cheesecake.

In a fascinating study just out from Northwestern University, researchers found that your eyes can indeed deceive your stomach. After looking at a calorie-laden food such as cheesecake, people consistently underestimated the calories in a cheeseburger. On the flip side, contemplating an organic fruit salad caused people to overestimate the calories in the same cheeseburger by 33%. Whether or not the subjects would adjust their portions consumed accordingly (ie. eat a third less of the cheeseburger after looking at fruit) was left up to further research. But it certainly can't hurt to keep visions of healthy food dancing in your head.