Here I was thinking that the obesity epidemic was down to the fact that people ate too much. But that’s not so, according to an editorial due to be published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Instead, researchers suggest, it’s the large variety of foods available that’s to blame.

The editorial comes in response to a study published in May, which found that people lose interest in food and reduce their consumption when they are repeatedly exposed to the same item. Scientists divided a number of obese and non-obese women into two groups, feeding one group macaroni cheese every day, whilst giving the other group macaroni cheese once a week. The women who ate macaroni cheese every day ate smaller portions of it at the end of a five week period.

In other words, people get bored of eating the same thing all the time.

From this pretty underwhelming bombshell, co-authors Nicole Avena and Mark Gold arrived at the conclusion that variety promotes obesity!

“Clearly, school-lunch planners and public health officials should note that diversity in the menu is not necessarily a virtue, and in fact may be associated with promoting excess food intake and increased body mass index,”

Is it just me, or is this the most logically faulty piece of research ever done in the history of science? People eat less of a particular food when it’s the only option, therefore variety makes people fat?! Couldn’t it be just as easily argued that failing to burn food makes people fat? I’m sure people would eat less of a meal if it was half burned!

How about making food look nice makes people fat? From now on, all food should be smeared with a grey slimy paste. That’ll help keep the pounds off!

How about we stop blaming the rest of the world for obesity and start thinking about how we can change people’s attitudes? It’s impossible to remove the temptation to overeat from people’s lives, short of keeping them locked up in a cell. So how about we help people make better choices instead?

Source : The Independent