Trying to Cut Calories? Skip the Chip Dip

Yes, it’s challenging to resist a bag of chips, but here’s a trick if you’re trying to cut calories – skip the dip. Researchers found that when consumers pair chips with dip, their calorie intake increases by 77% compared to eating chips alone.

Snacks make up about a quarter of the average person’s daily calorie intake, yet eating behaviors related to snacking remain surprisingly under-researched.

John Hayes, professor of food science and director of the Penn State Sensory Evaluation Center, corresponding author of the latest test emphasizes that understanding snacking behavior is key to addressing overeating and obesity.

To investigate, the research team examined how adding dip to a salty snack affects eating behavior and found some surprising results. When given dip, people not only consumed more calories, they also ate faster and took larger bites, according to the results published in Food Quality and Preference.

The study involved 46 adult participants during two visits to Penn State’s Sensory Evaluation Center, where they were given 70 grams of ranch-flavored chips, with or without one-third cup of ranch dressing. Participants were allowed to eat as much as they wanted, but their food intake was carefully measured. Each session was videotaped and reported in terms of the number of bites and time spent actively eating.

The researchers then used the data to analyze the “microstructure of eating,” focusing on factors such as eating pace and bite size to understand how the addition of sauce affected eating behavior.

“On average, during one session, participants consumed 345 calories of chips and sauce compared to 195 calories of chips alone,” the report reads. Press Release it was stated.

“The most striking finding of our study is that people did not eat fewer chips when the dip was available — they ate the same amount of chips plus the dip. This lack of compensation means that adding dip to chips can significantly enhance overall energy intake without people even realizing it,” Hayes said in a press release.

“This research opens up novel avenues for exploring how the physical properties of food can affect our eating behavior and ultimately our energy intake. If we can ponderous people down, we can influence energy intake without sacrificing the pleasure of eating,” Hayes added.