ArticleThe American journal of clinical nutrition2022
Time to revisit the passive overconsumption hypothesis? Humans show sensitivity to calories in energy-rich meals.
Article in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prospects of Food Taxes for Planetary Health: A Systematic Review of Modeling Studies.Nutrition reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Consuming an unprocessed diet reduces energy intake: a post-hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial reveals a role for human nutritional intelligence.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Trial
- Short-term effects of high-protein, lower-carbohydrate ultra-processed foods on human energy balance.Nature metabolism · 2025Trial
- "The Big Three" properties of food that drive intake.Physiology & behavior · 2025Review
- Sugar Reformulation in Solid Foods: Limitations and Challenges.Nutrition bulletin · 2025Article
- Childhood Obesity: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- Ultra-processed foods and plant-based alternatives impair nutritional quality of omnivorous and plant-forward dietary patterns in college students.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Children's Energy Intake Generally Increases in Response to the Energy Density of Meals but Varies with the Amounts and Types of Foods Served.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2024Article
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5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundA possible driver of obesity is insensitivity (passive overconsumption) to food energy density (ED, kcal/g); however, it is unclear whether this insensitivity applies to all meals.
objectivesWe assessed the influence of ED on energy intake (kcal) across a broad and continuous range of EDs comprised of noncovertly manipulated, real-world meals. We also allowed for the possibility that the association between energy intake and ED is nonlinear.
methodsWe completed a secondary analysis of 1519 meals which occurred in a controlled environment as part of a study conducted by Hall and colleagues to assess the effects of food ultra-processing on energy intake. To establish the generalizability of the findings, the analyses were repeated in 32,162 meals collected from free-living humans using data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). Segmented regressions were performed to establish ED "breakpoints" at which the association between consumed meal ED and mean centered meal caloric intake (kcal) changed.
resultsSignificant breakpoints were found in both the Hall et al. data set (1.41 kcal/g) and the NDNS data set (1.75 and 2.94 kcal/g). Centered meal caloric intake did not increase linearly with consumed meal ED, and this pattern was captured by a 2-component ("volume" and "calorie content" [biologically derived from the sensing of fat, carbohydrate, and protein]) model of physical meal size (g), in which volume is the dominant signal with lower energy-dense foods and calorie content is the dominant signal with higher energy-dense foods.
conclusionsThese analyses reveal that, on some level, humans are sensitive to the energy content of meals and adjust meal size to minimize the acute aversive effects of overconsumption. Future research should consider the relative importance of volume and calorie-content signals, and how individual differences impact everyday dietary behavior and energy balance.
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