Are Your Weight-Loss Meals Making You Eat More?

image courtesy of Lean Cuisine

Have you ever polished off a Lean Cuisine and felt like you were just as hungry as you were before? Apparently, it’s not just the fact that it’s “diet food.” Your urge to keep eating could have more to do with the word “lean” on the box. A new study shows that when we eat something that’s labeled “light” or “diet,” we think we aren’t satisfied afterward, and may eat more – which kind of defeats the purpose of a weight-loss nutrition program.

Food manufacturers, especially of diet foods, may want to change their packaging to imply that their product is more satisfying. But we see a potential problem: Dieting consumers are much less likely to buy something that describes itself as “hearty” or “filling.” We prefer uncomplicated foods, so we’ll try to stick to the unprocessed variety to avoid the problem of labels entirely.

via Mercola Health Blog