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Diet food (or dietetic food) refers to any food or drink whose recipe has been altered in some way to make it part of a body modification diet. Although the usual intention is weight loss and change in body type, sometimes the intention is to aid in gaining weight or muscle as in bodybuilding supplements.

Contents

Terminology

In addition to diet other words or phrases are used to identify and describe these foods including light or lite, low calorie, low fat, no fat, fat free, no sugar, sugar free, and zero calorie. In some areas use of these terms may be regulated by law. For example in the U.S. a product labeled low fat must not contain more than 3 grams of fat per serving; and to be labeled fat free it must contain less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving.1

Process

The process of making a diet version of a food usually requires finding an acceptable low calorie substitute for some high calorie ingredient. This can be as simple as replacing some or all of the food's sugar with a sugar substitute as is common with diet soft drinks such as Coca-Cola. In some snacks, the food may be baked instead of fried thus reducing the calories. In other cases, low fat ingredients may be used as replacements.

In whole grain foods, the higher fiber content effectively displaces some of the starch component of the flour. Since fiber has no calories, this results in a modest caloric reduction. Another technique relies on the intentional addition of other reduced-calorie ingredients, such as resistant starch or dietary fiber, to replace part of the flour and achieve a more significant caloric reduction. 2

Controversy

In diet foods which replace the sugar with lower-calorie substitutes, there is some controversy based around the possibility that the sugar substitutes used to replace sugar are themselves harmful. Even if this question is satisfactorily resolved (which remains unlikely at this timecitation needed), the question still remains as to whether the benefits of caloric reduction would outweigh the potential loss.

In many low-fat and fat-free foods the fat is replaced with sugar, flour, or other full-calorie ingredients, and the reduction in caloric value is small, if any.3

High Fructose Corn Syrup and Leptin Resistance.

A study published recently suggests that the consumption of high fructose corn syrups may be linked to leptin resistance in the body. High fructose corn syrups are inexpensive, extremely sweet and extend the shelf life of processed foods, making this a very popular food additive since the early 1980s. Overconsumption of the syrup can lead to weight gain through its suppression of feelings of fullness leading a person to consume more calories.

American Physiological Society (2008, October 19). Fructose Sets Table For Weight Gain Without Warning. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 15, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/10/081016074701.htm

Shapiro et al. Fructose-Induced Leptin Resistance Exacerbates Weight Gain in Response to Subsequent High Fat Feeding. AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology, October, 2008; DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00195.2008

See also

References

  1. ^ A Little 'Lite' Reading, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  2. ^ Resistant starch replacement system
  3. ^ Fat-Free vs. Regular Calorie Comparison, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
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