Category Archives: Food

You might opt for diet soda instead of regular pop to save a few calories, but a new study by the National Institutes of Health indicates that you could be doing your mental health more harm than good in either case. The results suggest that there may be a link between diet soda and depression (and other diet beverages). The study, almost 20 years in the making, included nearly 264,000 adults from various parts of the United States. The study could be very relevant to many Americans, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that around 1 in 10 adults in the U.S. report suffering from depression. People between the age of 45 and 64 seem to be the most likely to have the condition. Other groups that have high depression rates include women, people whose highest education level is lower than high school, and those that have been divorced.

Nutritionists have long believed that most people will declare themselves “full” when they’ve eaten all the food on their plate, no matter how much food was on the plate in the first place — a belief previously proven through scientific study. Now, a new study is suggesting that people will feel fuller longer after eating a meal if they believe the meal was large. Researchers from the United Kingdom’s University of Bristol gathered 100 students whose average age was 26. Each student was presented with either a 17-ounce or 10-ounce serving of tomato soup. However, the researchers used a hidden pump to change the amount of soup in each bowl, unbeknownst to the students. In the end, some of the students who saw a 10-ounce bowl actually consumed 17 ounces of soup, while others who saw a 17-ounce bowl actually only ate 10 ounces.