Tucking into a ‘light’ version of your favourite meal to lose weight may be counterproductive because it just encourages you to eat more, a study suggests.
Supermarket shelves in the UK are abound with ready meals advising that they are ‘calorie controlled’ or ‘lighter’ than their normal counterparts, with the aim of luring in shoppers losing to shed some pounds.
But new research from a team of Dutch and US nutritional and psychology experts has found labels touting a meal as being ‘light’ seem to prompt diners to overindulge. Scientists presented a group of 37 volunteers with two identical 500g pasta dishes, except one was labelled ‘light’ and the other ‘filling’.
On average, diners consumed 31g more of the lighter meal.
This was equivalent to an extra 42 calories. In comparison half-a-tablespoon of mayonnaise is 50 calories.
The scientists said their findings should prompt caution about the use of such labels on food products aiming to help people diet.
A quarter of adults in the UK, and nearly half of those in the US are classified as obese. Being a fat mother doesn’t necessarily mean your children will be overweight too Being born to an overweight mother is not an excuse for being fat in your teens, a study suggests.
Inherited genes
Academics have argued for years about whether being chubby or thin as a child is determined by diet or inherited genes.
One leading theory was that mothers with excess bodyfat during pregnancy were more likely to have children who grow up to be overweight.
But British researchers have found there is ‘no strong association’ between the BMI of teenagers and their mothers. They said other factors — such as diet and lifestyle — were the most important for determining a teenager’s weight. Imperial College London and Bristol University looked at 9,000 mother and offspring pairs.
There was, however, a ‘moderate’ link between body weight of mothers and children under the age of four. The researchers said that having fatter babies may be due to foetal over-nutrition — when overreating by the mother results in too many nutrients being passed to the foetus.
Scientists at Maastricht University and the Pennsylvania State University recruited 19 men and 18 women all between 18 and 64.
Participants had an average Body Mass Index of 25, meaning the majority were overweight, but not obese. They were asked to eat two lunches in a lab, roughly two weeks apart. Volunteers were presented with identical pasta salads consisting of penne in a pesto sauce with tomatoes, seasoned with oregano and basil.
An information leaflet presented during the test described the dish as either being a ‘lighter’ version of a pasta salad made in the lab, or a ‘filling’ one made in the same way. Participants were allowed to eat as much of the meal as they wanted and could have more if they managed to clear their plate.
Results
At the end of each test, the amount eaten was calculated by weighing the remaining pasta. Results were then compared. Publishing their findings in the journal Appetite, the scientists said the volunteers ate 31g more of the lighter meal, on average, approximately 10 per cent more than the group given the filling version.
In terms of energy intake this was equivalent to 42 calories. For comparison half-a-tablespoon of mayonnaise comes in at about 50 calories.
Participants were also asked to rate how much they liked the pasta and their desire to eat it both before and after the meal to gauge how satiated they felt after eating, This was also done with a series of control group foods like grapes, popcorn, yogurt and cookies to establish a baseline.
Results of this portion of the study showed there were no major differences in how the volunteers ranked each dish.
This led the researchers to conclude it was the ‘light’ label that encouraged people to eat more, and that such labeling didn’t effect other aspects of people’s desire to eat it or how full they felt afterwards. Participants were given a two-week break between the pasta meals to ensure their previous experience did not influence the next test.
One of researchers, Maastricht’s Dr Anouk Hendriks-Hartensveld argued the findings could be relevant for people at risk of both undereating and overeating. ‘This may be relevant for situations in which one would want to promote intake, such as maintaining adequate energy intake in vulnerable patient populations or in older persons,’ she said.
‘Additionally, the study results warrant caution in the use of labels (possibly denoting satiating power) for products intended to decrease energy intake or support weight loss (e.g., light products), as the use of a “light” label could induce overeating.’
- Daily Mail