Obese like both sugar and carbs: Study Says

Obese like both sugar and carbs

Last updated: Tuesday, July 04, 2006
http://www.health24.com/news/Healthy...-919,36446.asp

The preference of fat or sweet foods amongst obese adults is equal, and
more related to personality type and eating behaviour than gender,
suggests new research from Sweden.
"These results can contribute to more understanding about strong taste
preferences in obesity," wrote lead author Kristina Elfhag from the
Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

Over 300 million adults are obese worldwide, according to latest
statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
International Obesity Task Force. About one-quarter of the US adult
population is said to be obese, with rates in Western Europe on the
rise although not yet at similar levels.

It has previously been suggested that food taste preferences varies
between the sexes.

"It is a common notion that the favourite foods of obese men are those
high in fat and protein, whereas obese women rather choose foods high
in carbohydrate/fat and sugar," explained Elfhag.

No significant gender differences
"According to our study on a rather small sample, there were no
significant gender differences in sweet and fat preference. Our results
suggest that the psychological factors override gender associations in
taste preferences in obesity," she said.

The Swedish researchers recruited 60 patients at the Obesity Unit at
the Karolinska University Hospital to undertake the study. Forty-four
women and 16 men.

The subjects were interviewed to gauge preferences for sweet and/or fat
foods. Eating habits were measured using the Three Factor Eating
Questionnaire (TFEQ), and personality traits were analysed using the
Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP).

It was found that 27 per cent of the subjects preferred sweet tastes
only, 28 per cent preferred fat tastes only, and 10 per cent reported
liking both.

Lack of restraint to blame
When preferences were compared with scores from the eating behaviour
analysis and personality tests, the researchers found that fat taste
preferences were associated with low levels of cognitive restraint over
eating.

"This means obese patients who are not prone to make conscious attempts
to control and restrict their food intake have more preference for
fatty foods. This could be due to a lower ability to resist foods among
those who have a strong liking for fat," suggested the researchers.

Strong preferences for sweet tastes were linked to high scores for the
personality dimension neuroticism, namely "lack of assertiveness" and
"embitterment".

This observation appears to agree with both animal and human studies
that reported that sucrose could reduce the effects of chronic stress
by reducing the activity of the Hypthalamo-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis
in the brain."Chronic stress leads to elevated glucocorticoids which in
turn stimulates the drive for "comfort food" (sucrose)," said Elfhag.

There are some limitations with this study, namely that sweet
preferences included foods such as chocolate, ice cream and pastries,
which could more accurately be described as "sweet-fat foods". However,
this limitation is itself limited by suggestion that sugar masks the
taste of fat.

These results do have some tentative clinical implications, said the
researchers.

"For the obese patient with a strong sweet taste preference, there
could be reason to focus on the psychosocial situation and the
psychological factors in eating. For the patient with a strong fat
preference, we rather need to understand more about the link to their
eating behaviour," concluded Elfhag.

The study was published in the June 15th issue of Physiology and
Behaviour.

Source: Decision News Media