Academics working on the study analysed American survey data and found that overweight and obese people seem to consume fewer sugary drinks and sweet snacks than people of average weight.
“To be honest, it was shocking to me,” the Times reported David Just, professor of nutrition at Cornell University, New York, the lead author.
“It doesn’t contradict the idea that these foods are bad for you, and that eating too much of them is going to make you overweight. But in the scientific world we’ve just assumed this must be the main problem and fallen prey to a psychological bias,” he said.
The academics suggested that ‘demonising’ burgers, chocolate and other unhealthy foods might militate against weight loss, and suggested that people should concentrate on reining in the total number of calories they eat.
Overall, eating more portions of junk food was found to make no difference to the waistlines of the 95% of the US population who were not extremely underweight or extremely morbidly obese.