As noted in a recent press release from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, feeding diet foods and drinks designed for children may lead to overeating and obesity. The researchers suggest that children who consume low-calorie versions of foods normally high in calories may develop distorted connections between taste and calorie content, leading them to overeat as they grow up. The results of this research were published on Aug. 8 in Obesity.
"Based on what we've learned, it is better for children to eat healthy, well-balanced diets with sufficient calories for their daily activities rather than low-calorie snacks or meals," says David Pierce, Ph.D., professor of social psychology, University of Alberta, and lead author of the paper.
The researchers fed low-calorie versions of foods and drinks to young rats, including lean and genetically obese rats. The experiments showed that this dietary approach led to overeating in the laboratory animals. The researchers note that although both lean and obese rats overate during regular meals, the added calories have more serious health implications for obese animals. Adolescent rats fed diet foods did not display the same tendencies to overeat, possibly due to a reliance on a variety of taste-related cues to correctly assess the energy value of their food.
"The use of diet food and drinks from an early age into adulthood may induce overeating and gradual weight gain through the taste-conditioning process that we have described," says Pierce. He adds that his team's "taste-conditioning process" theory may explain "puzzling results" from other studies, such as recent findings from researchers at the University of Massachusetts, who found links between diet-soda consumption and a higher risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
"One thing is clear at this point," Pierce says. "Our research has shown that young animals can be made to overeat when low-calorie foods and drinks are given to them on a daily basis, and this subverts their bodies' energy-balance system."
