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Low-fat or 'light' foods encourage over-eating in the long-term

In response to the burgeoning global obesity crisis, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for public policies that promote low-fat, high-fibre foods, and the food industry has responded: low-fat products are now big business. According to figures from Transparency Market Research, the global low-calorie food market was worth about €6.5 billion in 2013.

But such a policy may backfire both in the short- and long-term, according to a study by Dutch researchers published in International Journal of Research in Marketing.

While previous studies have confirmed consumers’ tendencies to overconsume low-fat foods for single occasions - perceived to be less dangerous to long-term health goals - not enough research has looked at whether this trend is also true in the long-term.

The researchers suggest low-fat products may encourage consumers to adjust the amount of food they buy upwards, across categories, even for regular products.

“These results confirm the experimentally known short-term effect that low-fat choices increase food consumption. Importantly, our results also show a significant positive long-term effect. This suggests that the overconsumption effect is persistent.”

 

You can read the full article HERE

 

Food Labelling Services Comments:

As an industry we are aware that portion sizes have significantly increased over the last 20 years, particularly in the processed foods sectors. Therefore there is a responsibility to educate the consumer as to the correct portion size. If consumers are increasing the portion sizes of 'diet' products, there is the danger that this new portion size will become normal to them, and the propensity to eat this volume of food in the future will continue.