People choose larger portions of ‘healthy' foods

People will choose larger portions of food if they are labeled as being "healthier," even if they have the same number of calories, according to a new study. "People think (healthier food) is lower in calories," said Pierre Chandon, a marketing professor at the INSEAD Social Science Research Center in France, and they "tend to consume more of it." That misconception can lead to people eating larger portion sizes of so-called healthy foods, and therefore more calories. "Foods are marketed as being healthier for a reason, because food producers believe, and they correctly believe, that those labels will influence us to eat their products and perhaps eat more of their products," said Dr. Cliodhna Foley Nolan the director of Human Health and Nutrition at Safefood, a government agency in Ireland. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_137068.html