"On average, the women who said they didn't diet or have weight concerns ate less ice cream if they drank at least one milkshake. The first sweet treat satiated their hunger. But for the women who dieted and felt worried about their weight, the milkshake appeared to unleash a hidden hunger. On average, they ate 66 percent more ice cream after the milkshake than they did without it."
"From these data, the researchers devised a bold new theory: Dieting and weight concerns make people overeat and gain weight. Dieting remains pervasive in American culture, but the milkshake study, and similar ones that followed, nonetheless reshaped many Americans' views of dieting and obesity."
"This line of research inspired treatments for eating disorders, helped launch an anti-diet movement, fueled the trend of so-called intuitive eating, and shifted how many parents raised their kids to think about food. But more recent evidence suggests that attempting to restrict one's food intake typically doesn't have such dire consequences after all."
A 1970s Northwestern University experiment with college women found that those who dieted ate significantly more ice cream after consuming a milkshake compared to non-dieters. This led researchers to theorize that dieting and weight concerns trigger overeating and weight gain. The study influenced widespread beliefs about eating disorders, spawning anti-diet movements, intuitive eating trends, and parenting approaches around food. However, contemporary research now suggests that restricting food intake does not necessarily produce the harmful outcomes previously believed, challenging the foundational assumptions of this influential early study.
#dieting-and-overeating #eating-disorders-research #anti-diet-movement #dietary-restraint-theory #intuitive-eating
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