Diet foods may make children fat

EDMONTON, Alberta, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Diet food and drink from an early age may inadvertently result in obesity, suggests a University of Alberta study in Canada.

Lead author Dr. David Pierce, a sociologist, says that animals learn to connect the taste of food with the amount of caloric energy it provides -- the "taste conditioning process" -- so children who eat low-calorie versions of foods that are normally high calorie may develop distorted connections between taste and calorie content.

The researchers conducted a series of experiments that showed substituting low-calorie versions of foods and drinks led to overeating in a sample of young rats, both lean and genetically obese. Adolescent rats that were older did not display the same tendency to overeat.

The study, published in the journal Obesity, suggests the older rats did not overeat because they, unlike the younger rats, relied on a variety of taste-related cues to access the calories eaten.

Diet foods are probably not a good idea for growing youngsters and parents should try the old-fashioned way to keep children fit by providing well-balanced meals and having children exercise regularly, advises Pierce.