A team of scientists in Canada has suggested that raising children on diet foods and drinks could inadvertently turn them into obese adults. They said that children’s bodies learn to connect the taste of different foods and drinks with whether they are high or low in calories, and if they only have diet food and drink this connection becomes distorted leading them to overeat as they develop into adults. The study will be published in the journal Obesity and is the work of sociologist Dr David Pierce and colleagues from the University of Alberta. ‘Based on what we’ve learned, it is better for children to eat healthy, well-balanced diets with sufficient calories for their daily activities rather than low-calorie snacks or meals,’ said Pierce. He and his team showed that feeding young rats low calorie substitutes of food and drink led them to overeat, whether they were lean or genetically obese. Eating too many calories is more of a health risk for obese animals. However, older, adolescent rats that were also fed low calorie substitutes of their regular food and drink did not overeat. The researchers concluded that the older rats did not overeat because by […]