Healthy Food Label Makes People Eat More

Many people believe in the notion that eating food with healthy labels is one way to stay fit. They may have to start changing their eating habit as a group of researchers found out that healthy conscious people, who thought they are eating well to stay fit, are actually doing it wrong.

According to a new study at University of Texas in Austin, people tend to consume more than what they need to when eating "healthy food" because they think that the nourishment they buy at the supermarket with healthy labels have less filling. The study was published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

"The findings suggest that the recent proliferation of healthy food labels may be ironically contributing to the obesity epidemic rather than reducing it," the researchers stated in a report by Daily Mail.

The team of researchers has conducted three tests to prove the validity of the study.

The first one included 50 undergraduate students who volunteered to be a part of the series of studies. They gave their views about the connection between the concept of healthy and filling.

The second study involved 40 volunteers at a large university. Their hunger levels were measured after they ate a cookie that was labeled as healthy or unhealthy.

In the last test, the researchers asked 72 participants to order some food and watch a short film. They were then evaluated how they thought the food presentation affected the amount they ordered and compared it to how much they actually consumed while watching the movie.

The results from the three tests were pretty ironic as all participants involved ate more or felt even hungrier when eating food with health labels. They thought that "healthy foods" are less filling compared to unlabeled ones, Daily Mail reported.

The study suggested that foods that carry "healthy" labels may surprisingly be a contributor of obesity since consumers who eat them tend to get bigger portions of that food.

Furthermore, the research suggested that consumers should avoid eating too much of the food that are presented to be healthy. Instead, they should go for food items that are nourishing if they want to feel satisfied without eating too much.

The study was conducted to provide a broad knowledge for consumers to avoid overeating foods that are presented as healthy. The researchers want to introduce a technique that would change people's habit of eating a larger portion when food is described as healthy.