This food could promote weight gain, according to science
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Health authorities are unanimous: regular, even daily, snacking can be harmful to health. A new study confirms these harmful effects, but adds an important fact. Removing a specific food from these occasional meals could significantly limit the amount of calories ingested. Explanations.
According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), a healthy diet involves limiting sugar and salt intake, and therefore favoring fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and reducing snacks. Snacking should be occasional, and the world health authority even recommends replacing sweet or salty snacks with fresh fruits and raw vegetables.
In France, the tone is the same to the point of discovering a host of advice on the subject on the platform of the national public health campaign “Eat, move”. It is notably recommended to turn to foods rich in fiber, not to skip any daily meals, to plan your meals for the week, to keep busy to avoid being tempted, or even to take the time to eat.
The Ultimate Trick to Reduce Calorie Intake from Snacking
While it is definitely better to limit yourself when it comes to snacking, a study has now revealed a trick designed to limit the calorie intake of these meals. This would involve eliminating a food from the traditional aperitif. Considering that “Snacks account for an average of a quarter of most people's daily calories“, scientists from the Center for Sensory Evaluation at Pennsylvania State University set out to determine how people could snack in a (slightly) healthier way.
To reach their conclusions, the researchers included 46 adult participants in this work. The latter were invited to the Sensory Evaluation Center, where they were served a 70-gram portion of ranch-flavored chips with – or without – a cup containing a third of ranch dressing (composed of mayonnaise and crème fraîche, among other things). The researchers then filmed the participants in order to analyze their consumption rate and the size of the bites ingested.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
Skip the sauce to reduce calorie intake
Published online in the scientific journal Food Quality and Preference, the results show a 77% higher caloric intake with the combination of chips and sauce. That's not all, since the snack accompanied by ranch sauce led to a higher consumption rate, compared to the snack consumed alone. Another observation and not the least, the researchers indicate that, despite the presence of sauce, the participants did not slow down on their consumption of chips.
“The most striking result of our study is that people did not eat fewer chips when there was sauce – they ate the same amount, plus sauce. This lack of compensation means that adding sauce to chips can significantly increase overall energy intake without people realising it.“, explains John Hayes, one of the authors of this work, in a press release.
The researchers said participants ate 345 calories when they ate the chips with ranch dressing, compared to 195 calories when they ate just the chips.This research opens new avenues to explore how the physical properties of foods can influence our eating behaviors and, ultimately, our energy consumption. If we can rein people in, we can influence energy consumption without giving up the pleasure of food.“, they conclude.