April 21/Thinkstock -- Which is healthier, salad or pasta? If someone is dieting, chances are they will say salad, according to a new study on how dieters make snap judgments based on food names rather than ingredients.
The study's researchers asked a group of dieters and nondieters to pick which of two meals they would rather eat, pasta or salad, based on ingredient lists and photos. The catch was that both meals not only contained the same ingredients (including lettuce, tomatoes, pasta shells, cheese and vinaigrette), but they were the exact same dish containing 900 calories and 60g of fat.