1) Low Fat can Make You Fat!

My earliest memories with regards to dieting were also some of the biggest lessons on the issue. Here is the first of the three lessons I will share!

1) Low Fat can Make You Fat!

The summer I was 17 was one of the first my friends and I spent working. Days that were previously spent on the beach, on a boat, or in roller blades had been traded for unflattering, oversized uniforms and cliché customer service sentences. Our social lives were thus relegated to late night. Being underaged, we found ourselves at a local 24 hour donut shop slurping back saccharin beverages and eating deep fried pastry. 

September marked the beginning of the year that would end in Prom - the time of my life I wanted to look my best EVER! Suddenly, my fall wardrobe no longer fit!!! Frantic, I vowed to lose the weight like yesterday! I scoured the pantry and the fridge for ANYTHING labeled "diet", "fat free" or "low fat" and constructed my paper bagged lunches accordingly. Months later, I felt out of control. I would be so diligent by day then would derail into a frenzy of cookie eating by night. Not only was I feeling more maniacal than before, I was getting bigger.

The issue: I was eating foods with almost the same caloric content as their full fat counterparts. Due to their lack of fat, I wasn't feeling satiated. I would try so hard to adhere to a diet as close to fat free as possible. But by the time evening feel, I felt starved and would pig out uncontrollably.

Research on Low-Fat & Diet Foods: Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab conducted three studies that concluded "low-fat labels on snack foods encouraged people to eat up to 50% more than those [without such labels]..." (Chandon & Wansink, 2006). Participants underestimated the calorie content in these foods. One study found that "Low Fat" labels prompted participants to increase their serving size by an average of 25.1%.

In their epidemiological study, the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio's researchers discovered a link between diet soft drink consumption and increased waist size (Science Daily, 2011). The results were adjusted for confounding factors (such as age, waist size, physical activity level, smoking status and other demographics). Nearly a decade later, the diet soft drinkers' waist circumference was an average of 70% larger than those who did not drink diet sodas!!!!

References

Chandon, P. & Wansink, B. (2006). The health halo: how low-fat foods can actually make you fatter. 
      Retrieved from http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/outreach/low-fat.html

Crap Now Low Fat! (2012). Retrieved from http://fitchicktricks.com/low-fat-good-for-marketing-bad-
      for-health/

Science Daily (2011). Waistlines in people, glucose levels in mice hint at sweeteners' effects: related 
      studies of the artificial. Retrieved from 
      http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110627183944.htm