Hunger Triggers Part 3: The Diet Food Effect

This is part #3 of my answers for Allure Magazine's "Hunger Triggers" April, 2010 article.

Scenario #3
The Diet Food Effect

Studies show that “lite” or “low cal” on the label can lead to people overeating these items, probably because they are fooling themselves into thinking these are “free” foods they can eat in unlimited quantities. I always tell people they HAVE to look at the calories, and very importantly the PORTION SIZE on the nutrition label, which can be deceptively small for many items. People can easily fool themselves into thinking they are eating 50 calories of something, when they may actually be eating a 200 calorie portion size. A few mistakes like this really add up by the end of the day.

People often make the same mistakes with “healthy” restaurant meals such as salads or wraps. Certain salad items, and many “healthy” wraps are very high calorie, sometimes very high in saturated fat, and may be very high in refined carbohydrates. Caesar salad can have 600 calories if it is covered with buttered croutons and high-fat dressing. Make it a Chicken Caesar Salad Wrap, and it could be even worse - 1200 calories, depending on how it’s made.

I advise my patients to check the calories, which they can often do at home ahead of time, by looking up a menu of a particular restaurant online. They can use websites of chain restaurants, or a calorie counting website such as Calorie King, Sparkpeople, Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone (great for restaurants) , or The Daily Plate. I also tell people to plan ahead; if they go often to a certain type of restaurant, say Mexican, Italian, or Indian, use one of the websites to get an idea of the best choices ahead of time, so they go in knowing pretty much what they are going to do. It can give people a sense of control; knowledge is power.