It is a new year, which means a lot of people making resolutions to lose weight and eat healthier. While this is a great goal, eating “healthy” doesn’t necessarily always mean losing weight. Can healthy foods cause overeating?
University of Texas researchers set out to find if foods that are portrayed or marketed as “healthy” can cause overeating and actually contribute to weight gain.
According to study coauthor Jacob Suher his team, their results show that the “healthy equals less filling” theory is true, meaning that we consume a higher quantity of healthy foods, because we consider them to be less filling.
The researchers conducted three different studies. The following methods were outlined in the study press release:
The researchers found that portraying a food as healthy with marketing techniques affect consumer judgment. When a food is perceived as healthy, consumers reported lower hunger levels after eating, ordered greater amounts of food, and ate more.
The study was published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.
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REFERENCES:
1. “How Healthy Foods Could Lead to Overeating.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016.
2. “Eating Healthy or Feeling Empty?” EurekAlert! Cornell Food & Brand Lab, n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016.
3. “Eating Healthy or Feeling Empty?” Cornell University Food and Brand Lab. Cornell University, n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016.