SURREY, U.K. – Marketing food as a “snack” leads to increased consumption and continued overeating, a study in the journal Appetite reports.

Professor Jane Ogden and her researchers from the University of Surrey examined the impact of labelling food products as snacks or meals. During their research, 80 participants were asked to eat a pasta pot that was either labelled as a snack or a meal. Each pot was presented as a snack (eaten standing up from a plastic pot with a plastic fork) or a meal (seated at a table from a ceramic plate and metal fork). Once consumed, participants were asked to take part in an additional taste test of different types of snacks, such as cookies, crackers and candy. 

Researchers found that those who had eaten pasta labelled as a snack ate more at the taste test then when it had been labelled as a meal. It was also found that those who ate the snack standing up consumed more than those who had eaten the pasta sitting down at a table. Researchers have attributed this to a combination of factors and believe that when eating a snack, people are more easily distracted and may not be conscious of consumption. Researchers also argue that memories for snacks and meals may be encoded differently in one’s subconscious and that people are unable to recall what they may have eaten as a snack.

Jane Ogden, professor in health psychology at the University of Surrey, said: “With our lives getting busier increasing numbers of people are eating on the go and consuming foods that are labelled as ‘snacks’ to sustain them. What we have found is that those who are consuming snacks are more likely to over eat as they may not realize or even remember what they have eaten.

“To overcome this, we should call our food a meal and eat it as meal, helping make us more aware of what we are eating so that we don’t overeat later on.”