Latest research has revealed that eating "diet foods" may actually make you fatter than if you'd just eaten the full-fat version in the first place.
To prove this point, researchers recently fed mice chips every day. Half of the mice were put a low-fat diet while the other half were placed on a high-fat diet. The mice on the high-fat diet that chowed down on the low-fat chips gained more weight than the rodents that ate the regular chips. Even worse? Once the chips were taken away, the diet mice still couldn't lose the extra weight while the other mice dropped their pounds quickly. The fake fat not only did not keep them from getting fat, it monkeyed with their metabolism making them retain extra fat even after they stopped eating.
That sound? A million dieters smacking their heads on the table in frustration. Deprivation, while a necessary evil of weight loss, feels awful and most of us are used to playing some mental games to dull the pain. In addition, other research has shown that when we think we're eating something "healthy" (whether or not it really is) we tend to eat a lot more of it than if we'd just eaten the decadent option.
The lesson: Our bodies are smart and messing with our natural hunger cues can end up doing more harm than good.
Do you eat "lite" products or do you prefer the real deal? Chime in below!
