Study Shows Why People Prefer the Unhealthiest Foods

Epoch Times

24-05-2025

We know we shouldn't eat too much junk food, yet a recent study suggests that most of us eat bigger portions of our favorite snacks than we think is appropriate.
The
Participants chose one image that best represented the portion sizes they thought were appropriate to eat in one sitting and another that showed what they normally ate when at home, eating alone, or with family. After adjusting for factors such as sex, age, and body mass index, the study's authors found that—depending on the food—participants chose portions about 15 percent to 50 percent smaller than what they normally eat.
Why We Eat More Than We Need
The emphasis on convenience in our modern food environment may be one explanation for the study's results.
' I think the accessibility of food has definitely become an issue,' Kathrine Brown, a master-level weight loss and wellness coach and developer of the Conscious Weight Loss coaching process, told The Epoch Times.
'Doordash and the delivery services has definitely made the accessibility of the junk food, the McDonald's orders and everything else, way higher.'
Jack Bobo, executive director of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies, agreed and cited the explosion of choice as one contributing factor in an interview with The Epoch Times. According to
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More choices mean more decisions to make every time we shop, which eventually leads to a state Bobo refers to as 'decision fatigue.' Decision fatigue strains our capacity to think carefully about what we're buying, leading to poor food choices.
'Choice is fantastic,' Bobo said, 'but it's also overwhelming.'
Even when our brains are fresh and alert, many of the choices we face encourage us to over-consume.
' If you think about even just going through the checkout line at the grocery store, very rarely do you see the regular-size candy bars. It's always king size or jumbo size,' Chuck Carroll, host of the Exam Room Podcast, told The Epoch Times in an interview. 'We just get immune to these massive portions at such a young age.'
Bobo adds that marketing tricks our brains by appealing to our desire for value. If we're offered four ounces of ice cream for $4.00 but can get six ounces for $4.50, we're more likely to choose the bigger size because, he said, 'We hate to waste money. And that feels like value for money.'
Emotion-Driven Snacking
More than convenience and pragmatism may be at play in our tendency to overeat discretionary foods—what we commonly call 'junk food.' Carroll's own experience points to one powerful potential driver:
In his 20s, Carroll ate upwards of 10,000 calories a day, mainly in the form of junk food, a habit that skyrocketed his weight to 420 pounds. He describes his daily snack as a 'fourth meal' consisting of six taquitos and two bottles of Gatorade that he picked up from 7-11 on the way home from work. Once home, he'd typically have pizza before heading to Taco Bell for dinner.
' So even in my early 20s, I'm having chest pain, and I've been on blood pressure medication since I was 13 or 14 years old,' he said. 'And I was just a mess.'
Despite his health, Carroll said he felt a need to eat these foods, a draw he compares to a drug addict seeking a fix. He believes many people experience the same draw but don't understand the cause.
'I think that a lot of people are so hooked on these ... discretionary foods—that they kind of put blinders on much the same way that I did,' he said. 'They know it's not good for them, but they have no idea the extent of the damage that they're doing to their body, nor do they have any idea that they're addicted.'
Brown, who describes herself as a former 'foodaholic,' thinks food addiction may develop as the result of learned behaviors that begin when people turn to food to regulate emotions or ease stress. Over time, their dependency on food as a coping mechanism may progress into addiction.
It should be noted that
The Rise of Stress Snacking
Unraveling the causes of our tendency to overeat may be vital in addressing public health as snacking becomes a bigger part of daily life.
According to a
by the International Food Information Council, 56 percent of Americans
snack or eat small meals instead of traditional meals, and data from the 2024 Mondelez State of Snacking
shows that 60 percent of global consumers prefer to eat smaller meals throughout the day instead of a few larger ones.
These preferences are reflected in an increase in daily snacking over time. In 2015, Mintel reported that
While convenience is a factor, some data support Brown's observations about the role of emotion. A survey conducted by consumer market research group FMCG Gurus showed that
This is a significant increase from 2015, when Mintel reported that only 16 percent of people snacked because they were stressed.
The Paradox of Healthy Indulgence
Consumer data also suggest that we want to eat healthier even as we snack more. According to the International Food Information Council's (IFIC)
The IFIC survey notes that food manufacturers are responding to contrasting sentiments with products that combine healthy ingredients with the sweet, salty, crunchy flavors and textures we collectively crave. However, neither Carroll nor Bobo believes introducing new snack formulations will help us control our junk food intake.
' Look at the biggest weight loss programs in the world. They make sure that they still have all of those types of discretionary foods on their menu,' Carroll noted. 'So we're never changing behaviors. We're just reinforcing bad habits.'
Bobo pointed to the 'low-fat' food craze of the early 90s as a prime example. When the
But despite the changes, we continued to overeat. The 'low-fat' label gave treats like cookies an aura of health, which many people took as a signal that it was okay to eat more than a standard serving. Bobo noted how this tendency of human psychology backfired because many of the products were still high in calories and sugar.
'Our brains are very good at finding the loophole in our efforts to be healthier,' he said.
Break the Junk Food Cycle
To break the cycle of overeating, Bobo, Brown, and Carroll say we must recognize the forces that drive us—be they marketing, emotion, or addiction—and take action to restore our freedom of choice.
Carroll's personal moment of revelation was dramatic. After trying a litany of popular diets, he found himself on the 'cookie diet,' an eating plan he described as 'eating a cookie for breakfast and another one for lunch and just drinking a whole lot of water. And that's supposed to keep you full until dinner.'
But he was never full, a persistent problem that he says drove him 'up the wall.' He believes he was experiencing symptoms of withdrawal from all the junk food he'd been eating.
One night, his emotions spiraled into a combination of depression and anger that ended with putting his fist through a wall, abandoning the cookie diet, and heading to Taco Bell for his usual fare. When he felt a wave of euphoria wash over him with the first bite, he realized, 'I'm addicted to this stuff.'
For most of us, finding the root cause of overeating may require a more introspective approach. That's why Brown uses journaling exercises to help her clients identify their choices when snacking and objectively evaluate the actions and feelings surrounding those choices. She said journaling can uncover long-standing habits or emotional triggers so clients can seek help for the underlying issues. The practice can be helpful for anyone—once we know what's causing us to overeat, we can start to change our choices.
Bobo advised taking practical steps to establish new habits and make them stick.
' Each of us has to figure out—how is junk food infiltrating my life, and what are some strategies I can use in order to limit that?' He said the simplest strategies are not keeping junk food in the house and avoiding places that routinely trigger overindulgence.
He also suggested reframing the concept of 'value' by seeing giant portions as two or three reasonably sized treats that can be enjoyed on separate occasions. 'Why not have two desserts, one today and one tomorrow, instead of doubling up today?'
He doesn't put much confidence in the methods that the authors of the portion size study suggested for improving the broader food environment, which included setting size limits to prevent 'supersizing,' offering smaller size options, and adding portion cues to packaging.
'There are a lot of people who read labels or nutrition fact panels and things like that,' he said. 'But there's also a fair amount of research that says we don't read facts panels when we don't want to know what it says.'
Bringing the Joy back to Snacking
In Carroll's case, the shift toward a healthier mindset and lifestyle came unexpectedly after he decided to have weight loss surgery.
' I just woke up from the surgery, and suddenly the golden arches at McDonald's had a ton of tarnish,' he said. 'And anything in the fast food world was suddenly my enemy ... to this day, I've never been back.'
Today, when he's tempted to overeat, he stops to take a deep breath and consider what his body needs rather than defaulting to past habits. If he feels full but still wants more, he reminds himself that the food will still be there later if he gets hungry again. This approach, along with adopting a plant-based diet, has helped Carroll sustain a 280-pound weight loss and earned him the nickname 'Weight Loss Champion' from former NFL player Adam Carriker.
Brown helps clients take a similar approach with a concept she calls a 'soul serving'—a predetermined amount of discretionary food that's just enough to satisfy. Portioning out and enjoying a soul serving instead of sitting down with a whole box or bag of snacks allows clients to stop and evaluate how they feel before deciding if they really want more.
Whatever approach we take, Bobo said the goal should be to bring joy back to our experience with food.'[The way you eat] should not be to punish yourself. It should not be to undermine your enjoyment,' he said. 'You have to find something that actually makes you happier about how you're eating.'