Food preferences and body weight control

Abstract

There is an abundant scientific literature describing research into the behavioural causes of human obesity. However, the numerous hypotheses put forward over the years have led to very few convincing conclusions. In 1981, Spitzer and Rodin published a review of psychophysiological and behavioural studies comparing obese subjects with a control group of normal weight. They concluded that no characteristic could be regarded as being specific to obese persons. Most of the studies quoted did not establish any difference between obese persons and the control group, be it in the daily energy intake, eating habits or behaviour observed in the laboratory. The studies that reported differences between obese persons and the control group were contradictory. The conclusion must be that there is a great diversity of behaviour among obese populations just as there is among people of normal weight. This extreme intra-group diversity makes it difficult, or even impossible, to establish statistically (and scientifically) significant inter-group differences.