A new study has shown that healthy labelled foods might be making people fatter rather than helping them lose some weight.

The researchers found that people tend to eat more healthy labelled foods because they feel that it is less filling than other fattening foods. People naturally believe that they are making better choices by buying such food items and are likely to eat larger quantities. Thus, they consume more calories overall and become fatter.

The researchers said that eating too much makes people fat but eating too much healthy food can also cause obesity. There is a lot of obesity over food labels in the UK and the government backs a 'traffic light' system, which shows how much salt, fat and sugar the item contains. However, some of the consumers believe that it is over bearing.

The study said, “The findings suggest that the recent proliferation of healthy food labels may be ironically contributing to the obesity epidemic rather than reducing it.”

The researchers conducted three studies and found that consumers believe that healthy foods are less filling than unhealthy foods and thus eat larger quantities that make them fatter.