Understanding why they’re so easy to overeat might be key to making them less harmful, some researchers say. It was 9am on a Friday in March, and Ernest Jones III was hungry. From a hospital bed at a research facility at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, he surveyed his meal tray: Honey Nut Cheerios with fibre-enriched whole milk, a plastic-wrapped blueberry muffin and margarine.
“Simple, old school,” one of those “Saturday morning breakfasts from back in the day,” said Jones, 38, who is studying to become a pastor. He was about halfway through his 28-day stay at the NIH, and Jones was one of 36 people participating in a nutrition trial that is expected to be completed in late 2025..
