That oft-cited, headline-making figure from the early 2000s? Researchers are taking a harder look at the data — and finding cracks in the math.
Key Points
- A widely cited study claiming people make about 200 food decisions a day is being challenged by new research from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
- Researchers found that the original estimate ballooned from 14.4 to 226.7 decisions because the questions were broken into smaller parts. This new study argues the inflated number reflects the “subadditivity effect.”
- Researchers warn that oversimplified claims about unconscious eating can undermine people’s sense of control over their food choices.
Nearly 20 years ago, a study revealed that we make around 200 food-related decisions each day. The science, it seemed, was sound. In the study, researchers asked 154 participants to estimate their daily food decisions, used some complex math, and concluded the average was about 226 decisions in a 24-hour period. For a while, the health, science, and wellness communities accepted this finding at face value. Until now.
In 2025, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development published a study in the journal Appetite that took a hard look at where that number actually came from and if the original researchers' math makes real sense.
In that initial study, when they asked the 154 participants how often they made food decisions, the team found an average of 14.4 decisions per day. However, the researchers further broke down the question into smaller parts, asking participants to categorize a typical meal into specific categories such as “when,” “what,” “how much,” “where,” and “with whom.” It was only when these individual estimates were added together that the total jumped to an average of 226.7, which they interpreted as all the "mindless" eating we do in a day.
Related: A Bread Expert Wants to Debunk a Major Myth About Sourdough Starter
The problem, Maria Almudena Claassen, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the institute, said, is that the massive gap between 14.4 decisions and 226.7 doesn't actually prove mindlessness. “This number paints a distorted picture of how people make decisions about their food intake and how much control they have over it,” Claassen shared in a statement.
Instead, she and her fellow researchers at the institute believe the gap simply illustrates a well-known cognitive phenomenon: the subadditivity effect.
The subadditivity effect, the researchers explained, is the tendency for estimates to skew higher when a big question like “how many times do you think about food” gets broken into smaller parts. The jump from 14.4 to 226.7, the team argued, reflects that cognitive pattern. It doesn't reveal some hidden truth about unconscious eating, but rather follows a predictable pattern of human estimation.
While a little distorted math might not seem like a huge deal, Claassen explained that repeatedly sharing this flawed finding, along with other simplified claims, can influence public perception in "harmful" ways.
“Such a perception can undermine feelings of self-efficacy,” Claassen said. “Simplified messages like this distract from the fact that people are perfectly capable of making conscious and informed food decisions.”
Related: A Food Scientist Debunks 3 Widespread Food Myths From 2025
Rather than reducing our food choices to a number, Claassen and her team believe those choices should be given greater context, with research questions exploring "what is being eaten, how much is consumed, what is avoided, when the choice occurs, and the social or emotional setting surrounding it." They added in their statement, "The most important choices are those that connect to personal goals," which can range from health management to sustainability, and beyond.
“Magic numbers such as the alleged 200 food decisions do not tell us much about the psychology of eating decisions, even more so if these numbers turn out to be themselves distorted,” Ralph Hertwig, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, added. “To get a better understanding of eating behavior, we need to get a better grasp of how exactly decisions are made and what influences them.”
Read the original article on Food & Wine
