Does fat-free yogurt cause greater weight gain than the full-fat kind? How 'misleading' food labels are 'worsening the obesity crisis'

Fat-free yogurt may cause greater weight gain that the full-fat kind, according to researchers behind a new $40million dollar nutrition project.

Gary Taubes and Dr Peter Attia of Nutrition Science Initiative , contend that the sugars and additives added to replace missing fats, drive insulin resistance - an underlying cause of obesity.



They say this trend applies to all low-fat food options, from breakfast cereals to salad dressings, which many people 'wrongly' assume are healthier than the 'classic' versions.

Don't be fooled by the label: Fat-free yogurt may cause greater weight gain that the full-fat kind, according to researchers behind a new multi-million dollar nutrition project

Talking at Stanford University last year, Dr Attia explained: 'The [low-fat, organic], raspberry, peach, apricot [yogurt] has almost no fruit in it.



'It doesn't even have enough berry to color the yogurt, so they add coloring, flavor and sugar.



'So you've got a low-fat product, that's high in calories. . . . It's a case of good intentions gone array.'

Indeed, an Activia Strawberry yoghurt is just two per cent fat but has 17g of sugar - a third of a woman's recommended daily sugar intake.



Dr Attia says one of the worst offenders is high fructose corn syrup, a processed sweetener and preservative, first used by food manufacturers in the late Seventies.



It is commonly used in low-fat produce and staples such as soda, bread and pasta sauces to improve the 'taste and feel'.



Dr Attia continues on his blog The Eating Academy : 'If you see anything that says “fat-free” or “low-fat” on the package, that’s a huge warning sign to avoid it.



'[It] is almost universal code for, "we took out the fat and stuffed in more sugar."'



In a bid to prove his hypothesis he launched the Nutrition Science Initiative with Mr Taubes, an award-winning science writer, last September.

'If you see anything that says "fat-free" or "low-fat" on the package, it is almost universal code for, "we took out the fat and stuffed in more sugar"'

The California-based non-profit organization received $40million in funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) this spring to fund three experiments investigating the link between diet and obesity.

In a press release they highlight that 'despite following current dietary recommendations- for example, reducing fat intake- Americans are getting more and more obese.'

Independent investigators will monitor a number of overweight and obese volunteers on various low-fat diets for the effects on their bodies.



In order to leave as little as possible to chance, the participants will have to live at the research facility during the experiment.



Mr Taubes and Dr Attia, who highlight the details of their venture in the September issue of Scientific American, expect that they may have preliminary results sometime within the next year or so.

'We've become so disconnected with our food and it's such a complicated problem,' Mr Taubes concluded.

Despite Mr Taubes and Dr Attia's beliefs Dr Ralph Abraham, consultant in diabetes and endocrinology at London Medical , told MailOnline that people should focus on calorie content instead of fat and sugars.



‘Unless you specifically know how your metabolism works and whether you are indeed susceptible to insulin resistance, then it’s the total number of calories that matters.

