Too good to be true: Dose insensitivity and stereotypical thinking of foods’ capacity to promote weight gain

Manipulations that influence stereotypes of the weight-gain potential of foods

“…There was a tendency among the paired-food respondents (compared to the random-food respondents) to consider ''healthy" foods as causing more weight gain presumably because they were paired with an ''unhealthy" food, and ''unhealthy" foods as causing less weight gain likely because they were paired with a ''healthy" food. If in fact food stereotyping is having a negative impact on the average person's eating habits as has been discussed previously (Oakes, 2005c;Oakes & Slotterback, 2005) more research needs to be devoted to revising or attenuating these beliefs. In other words, this study is only a beginning.…”

“…Beliefs concerning food healthfulness and weight gain seem to always implicate fat content (Carels et al, 2006;Oakes, 2005bOakes, , 2005cOakes, , 2006Oakes & Slotterback, 2001a, 2001b, 2005. However, in the present study, in several cases the fat content (as well as the energy density and sugar, fiber, and carbohydrate contents, to some degree) of the ''unhealthy" snacks were similar to the ''healthy" snacks, i.e., the 200, 450, and 500 cal snack pairs (i.e., pairs four, nine, and ten in Appendix B): but, the respondents perceived the ''unhealthy" snacks to promote more weight gain than the ''healthy" snacks.…”

“…Finally, Oakes (2005b) and Oakes and Slotterback (2005) showed that college men tended to rate ''good" and ''bad" foods with roughly equivalent energy value as more similar in terms of their capacity to promote weight gain than did college women. However, these gender differences were not evident when evaluating more mature adults (Oakes, 2005c).…”

“…Foods are typically judged as being either good or bad for health: ''good" foods (e.g., any type of fruit) are automatically perceived to be rich in nutrients considered important for good health (e.g., vitamins and minerals), low in fat or sugar, and to preserve slimness. On the other hand, ''bad" foods are believed to be low in vitamin and mineral content, high in fat and/or sugar, and promote extreme weight gain (Carels, Harper, & Konrad, 2006;Oakes, 2004Oakes, , 2005aOakes, , 2005bOakes, , 2005cOakes, , 2006Oakes & Slotterback, 2005).…”

A comparison of categorical beliefs about foods in children and young adults

“…Findings from recent research suggest that food names that are often judged as unhealthy (e.g., a Snickers miniature-47 calories) are considered to promote greater weight gain than higher-caloric portions of foods with more healthy reputations (e.g., 1/2 cup of green peas-62 calories; Oakes, 2005aOakes, , 2005bOakes & Slotterback, 2005;Rozin, Ashmore, & Markwith, 1996). Surprisingly, even when participants were provided information concerning calorie contents, lower-calorie ''unhealthy" foods were judged to promote greater weight gain than higher-calorie ''healthy" foods (Oakes & Slotterback, 2005).…”