There’s more shocking – but welcome – news about the effects of Processed Foods! It now appears that the mere fact food is processed is as important as what it contains. And the difference between PFs and conventional foods is amazing…
A team from University College London surprised itself as much as anybody with the findings of its latest study on the effects of eating Processed Foods (PFs).
Cut it out!
Losing weight by cutting PFs could be much easier than we thought. And the process could be much less complicated than we ever dreamed…
And the more they looked, he more good news they uncovered!
What they did
The trial split 55 adults into two groups. One group started with an eight-week diet of Minimally-processed foods (MPFs), such as overnight oats or homemade spaghetti Bolognese. After a four-week ‘washout’ period during which participants went back to their normal diet, they switched to a diet of Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs), such as breakfast oat bars or a lasagna ready-meals. The other group completed the diets in the opposite order.
In total, 50 participants completed at least one diet.
The provided diets were nutritionally matched in accordance with the Eatwell Guide, the UK’s official government advice on how to eat a healthy, balanced diet. This included levels of fat, saturated fat, protein, carbohydrate, salt and fiber, as well as providing recommended intakes of fruits and vegetables. Participants had plenty of food available (i.e. more calories than they needed), and were told to eat as much or as little as they wanted, as they would normally.
Crucially, they were not told to limit their intake.
What they found
Somewhat surprisingly, researches observed that folks People eating minimally processed foods lost twice as much weight as those on ultra-processed diets, even though both diets were nutritionally balanced and participants could eat freely.
Let’s be clear: the only difference between what subjects consumed during their respective test sessions was how intensely it had been processed.
The takeaway
“The primary outcome of the trial was to assess percentage changes in weight,” the study report explains. “On both diets we saw a significant reduction, but the effect was nearly double on the minimally processed diet.:
The results became really impressive only once they were scaled up over a year.
“Though a 2 percent reduction may not seem very big, that [was] only over eight weeks, and without people trying to actively reduce their intake. If we scaled these results up over the course of a year, we’d expect to see a 13 percent weight reduction in men and a 9 percent reduction in women on the minimally processed diet.”
Participants also reported a two-fold greater improvement in overall craving control during the periods they ate MPFs, and a four-fold greater improvement in craving control for savoury food. In addition, there was an almost two-fold greater improvement in resisting foods they most craved.
My take
I want to know WHY folks’ metabolisms responded to the test diet regimes the way they did. Seems to me, that’s where the dirty little secrets about why PFs are so evil ultimately reside.
But I won’t quibble about the researchers’ findings.If their tests were, in fact accurate and unbiased.
In spite of the fact that the University College findings seem so unlikely and non-intuitive, they’re just so positive and optimistic that I really, really, want to believe them. In spite of the fact that much more research is indicated…
~ Maggie J.