It has been established that if you feed a mouse cookies, chips, and cream, they will become obese. But is it the flavor of the foods that cause overeating? Or, could it be the nutrient density that promotes the gorging? After all, animals have evolved to seek out fatty and sugary foods as a matter of survival. A team of researchers led by Dr. Michael Tordoff, a physiological psychologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Pennsylvania, set out to test this belief in more detail. “Most people think that good-tasting food causes obesity,” he explains. Tordoff was unconvinced, and he therefore designed a range of experiments to see whether the theory held any water. The conclusion drawn is that good-tasting food alone does not influence obesity. Flavor determines what we choose to eat, but not how much of it we eat over the longer term.
Can we blame delicious food for our holiday weight gain?
