Low Calorie food may lead to obesity

clipped from www.time.com If you think you're cutting calories by eating diet or low-calorie versions of your favorite foods, think again. A new study by Canadian scientists published in the journal Obesity suggests that our bodies can't be fooled that easily studied the eating habits of young rats, and found that they tended to overeat when they were fed "diet" foods. Though the new study was conducted in animals, it adds to a growing body of research in humans that suggests a diet-foods paradox: the more low-calorie (or even zero-calorie) sodas and foods you consume, the more your body demands payback for the calories it was deprived Pierce trained his rats to associate low-calorie foods with a "diet" taste, and high-calorie foods with a different taste. So, when the rats were fed a high-calorie food that had been flavored with the diet taste, their brains assumed that their bodies were running low on calories. These animals then overate at their next meal in an effort to refuel and make up for the lost energy.