Obese people eat more food because it simply tastes better, a new study has found.
Researchers at the University of Iowa gave chocolate to a group of obese and non-obese women and found that as the obese group kept eating the food continued to taste almost as good to them as the first bite.
The findings suggest that understanding taste perceptions may be crucial to preventing obesity when combined with targeting nutritional awareness.
“If people with obesity have different taste perceptions than nonobese people, it could lead to better understanding of obesity,” lead investigator Linnea Polgreen noted, according to News Medical.
More than 300 participants — 161 with a normal body mass index, 78 overweight and 51 obese — were given pieces of chocolate one at a time and were asked to rate how tasty each one was after eating it.
Obese women needed to eat 12.5 pieces of chocolate to feel the same level of foodie pleasure reached by nonobese women at 10 pieces, the study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Monday found.
“This may, in part, explain why obese people consume more than nonobese people,” co-investigator Aaron Miller added.
