Energy and fat compensation during long-term consumption of reduced fat products

The objective of this study was to investigate the behavioral response to the long term realistic consumption of reduced fat products. During six months, a control group of 103 subjects had free access to about 45 commercially available full-fat products, and a reduced-fat group of 117 subjects had access to the reduced fat equivalents. These experimental products covered about 37% of total energy intake in the control group and 30% of energy intake in the reduced fat group. Other non-experimental food products were bought in regular shops. The results showed that, compared to a baseline measurement before the start of the study, energy intake increased from 10.4 MJ/day to 11.2 MJ/d in the control group, whereas it remained constant at 10.2 MJ/d in the reduced fat group. Fat intake in the control group increased from 99 g/d (35.6en%) to 123g/d (40.6en%), whereas fat intake in the reduced fat group decreased from 95 g/d (34.en%) to 90 g/d (32.7en%). The energy and fat intake from experimental products was lower in the reduced fat group (3.1 MJ/d, 37 g fat/d) than in the control group (4.2 MJ/d, 71 g fat/d). There was some compensatory response in the consumption of experimental products: the ingested amount of experimental products was about 10% higher in the reduced fat group (447 g/d) than in the control group (399 g/d)[t = 2.6; p < 0.01]. There was no compensatory response in the consumption of non-experimental products. Both the control and reduced fat group consumed about 7.1 MJ/d and 53 g fat/d from non-experimental products. It is concluded that long term consumption of reduced fat products leads to a lower energy and fat intake, compared to the consumption of full-fat products.