Dining out? Choose a well-lit table to avoid overeating

People order healthier foods if they sit by a window or in a well-lit area, while people at uncomfortable high-top tables favor salads and buy fewer desserts, since it's harder to slouch or spread out.

A new book has revealed that where one sits in a restaurant has a serious effect on their waistline.

According to Professor Brian Wansink, director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab, people order healthier foods if they sit by a window or in a well-lit area, while people at uncomfortable high-top tables favor salads and buy fewer desserts, since it's harder to slouch or spread out, the New York Post reported.

In his book 'Slim By Design', Wansink wrote that seeing the sunlight, people or trees outside might make people more conscious of how they look, might make them think about walking or might prompt a green salad and it was also found that conspicuous consumption, or eating in an area that other diners can see them, seems to curtail overeating.

The book also revealed that those farthest from the door eat the fewest salads and are 73 % more likely to order dessert.

People at darkly lit tables or booths eat fattier foods, while diners within two tables of the bar drink on average three more beers or mixed drinks (per tables of four) than a group just one table farther away and if one is nearer to a TV, then they are likelier to consume more fried food.

Wansink added that also the darker it is, the more invisible people might feel, the less easy it is to see how much they are eating and the less conspicuous or guilty they might feel.