Question (Dec 21, 2009 at 10:34am)

Dec. 21, 2009 at 10:34am

As a heart patient, I try to watch my intake of fats, particularly saturated and trans fats. But many of the no- and low-fat foods are high in calories. Are they really a better choice?

Posted in Questions by Anonymous

Comments (1)

Some fat-free foods are great alternatives to their high-fat counterparts. But relying on them can create two problems:

First, many of these foods are too high in calories, usually from a sharp increase in sugar content. As a result, many fat-free foods now have calories comparable to - and sometimes higher than - their full-fat versions.

Next, people often perceive fat-free food as healthy and think they can eat as much as they want. Research shows that if people are told the food is fat-free, they tend to eat 2 to 5 times as much as they normally would if the food contained fat. So, instead of eating 2 chocolate chip cookies at 120 calories, they eat 10 fat-free cookies at 600 calories!

The average daily calorie intake of American adults increased by about 500 calories between the early 1970s and the early 2000s, and by 350 calories for children. That is more than enough to explain the 19 pound average weight gain in adults and 9 pounds in children during this period. And the source of many of these calories? You guessed it...fat-free foods!
1 | Left by Anon | Dec. 21, 2009 at 10:46am

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