Study Finds Ultra-Processed Foods Drive Weight Gain

[dixiegrrrrl]

The study, conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, is the first randomized, controlled trial to show that eating a diet made up of ultra-processed foods actually drives people to overeat and gain weight compared with a diet made up of whole or minimally processed foods.

The study gave people a diet of processed food, and the control group got what I call "real" food...minimally processed food.

both groups had the same calories per meal. Both groups ate the meals for 2 weeks.

the ultra-processed food group gained weight, average of 2 pounds over 2 weeks, while the control group, eating real food, averaged a loss of 2 pounds over 2 weeks.

Here's the kicker...at the end of 2 weeks, the groups switched diets, and guess what? weight gain again with the processed foods.

the study also seemed to indicate the cause of weight gain on processed foods, which I found very interesting.

"........some of the hormones that are involved in food intake regulation were quite different between the two diets as compared to baseline,"
When the participants were eating the unprocessed diet, they had higher levels of an appetite-suppressing hormone called PYY, which is secreted by the gut, and lower levels of ghrelin, a hunger hormone, which might explain why they ate fewer calories. On the ultra-processed diet, these hormonal changes flipped, so participants had lower levels of the appetite-suppressing hormone and higher levels of the hunger hormone.

The entire article is important to read, has more detail and describes how the research was set up.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/05/16/723693839/its-not-just-salt-sugar-fat-study-finds-ultra-processed-foods-drive-weight-gain

I found a DU post by nitpicker, from late 2018, that talks about cancer links to utra-processed foods.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/114219211

[appalachiablue]

1. K & R. Important info. to 'digest.'

[unblock]

2. i see you're sticking primarily to the whole groan diet....

[appalachiablue]

3. In a sense, yep. But I realize the subject is serious stuff, life & death!

We've been trying to stay with nuitritious, simple and unprocessed food for several years.

[flygal]

4. I've been losing weight on a Mediteranean diet

It makes me eat more whole foods. But I had been eating more canned tuna and eating more bread past week and it put on a few pounds.

[Skittles]

5. I eat TONS of processed foods, but have never been overweight

but I do move a LOT - I average about 18000 steps a day

[Silent3]

6. How exactly is "processed" defined anyway?

After all, grilling is a process, baking is a process, even chopping are stirring are processes.

I realize that when people say "processed foods" they're usually talking about things like Twinkies and cheese whiz and hot dogs, but shouldn't scientific studies be more specific?

Isn't it the particular "processes" that matter, and shouldn't different process be studied independently?

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. One of the definitions I've heard is

If it comes in a box or jar and has more than 3 ingredients.

[Silent3]

8. Scientifically speaking, that's a terrible definition.

You're not going to get to the bottom of real nutritional information with definitions like that.