A new study confirms the sad truth we already knew. Processed foods make us fat and whole foods help us lose fat. Here is a link to the study: https://osf.io/preprints/nutrixiv/w3zh2/
I love almost every kind of processed food there is, from potato chips to ice cream. From soda pop to saltines. If it comes in a box, bag, or plastic tub, I will probably love it. If it's made by some industrial baking process and comes sealed up in plastic with a shelf life longer than my kids have been alive, I will probably crave it.
But it's all bad for us. Processed foods are full of empty calories and very likely laced with ingredients to make us want more while satisfying our hunger less. Processed food is crap.
We all kind of knew that, didn’t we? But there is a very interesting aspect of this study worth emphasizing. And this is no small thing.
Here is what is so interesting:
The benefits of whole foods vs. processed foods had nothing to do with counting calories or intentional dieting!
During this study, the subjects were instructed to eat as much or as little as they wanted to of the food provided.
For this 4 week study, 20 subjects were admitted to the NIH Clinical Center. This means everything they ate during the study was recorded precisely and the researchers didn’t rely on self-reporting, which can be notoriously unreliable.
The subjects were randomly divided into two groups.
For the first two weeks, Group 1 was provided unlimited access to an assortment of processed foods and Group 2 was provided unlimited access to an assortment of whole foods.
Then the Groups swapped food sources.
For the last two weeks, Group 2 was provided unlimited access to an assortment of processed foods and Group 1 was provided unlimited access to an assortment of whole foods.
During the two weeks of processed foods, subjects from both groups gained on average 2 lbs of fat. During the two weeks of whole foods, the subjects from both groups lost on average 2.4 lbs of fat.
Let that really sink in!
They didn’t count calories!
They didn’t restrict their eating!
They ate as much as they felt like during both two week periods!
When they ate as much whole foods as they wanted, they LOST fat!
And when they ate as much processed foods as they wanted, they GAINED fat!
Holy cow, Man! That’s a big freaking deal. For many people, it could make all the difference in the world. Just focus on eating whole foods and limit the processed foods you keep in the house. And you could lose weight without ever counting calories or trying to restrict your eating.
Now this may not work for everyone. These subjects were not extremely obese to begin with. They were weight-stable adults with BMI’s around 27, which is a little on the chubby side, but not fat.
I know personally I could get fat eating either processed or whole foods, because I tend to overeat regardless. But even for someone like me, it could at least slow down the process of gaining fat or maybe it could be the edge I need just to maintain where I’m at.
So, even though we all pretty much knew processed foods were not good for us. It is still a profound revelation that simply eating whole foods to satiety can lead to fat loss, while eating processed foods to satiety leads to fat gain.
It's another good reason to focus on getting more of our nourishment from whole foods!
As always, thank you for reading. Feel free to ask questions or leave your own two cents in the comments below!
For reference, below is an excerpt from the published study:
Summary of Study Results:
We investigated whether ultra-processed foods affect energy intake in 20 weight-stable adults, aged 31.2±1.6y and BMI=27±1.5kg/m2. Subjects were admitted to the NIH Clinical Center and randomized to receive either ultra-processed or unprocessed diets for 2 weeks immediately followed by the alternate diet for 2 weeks. Meals were designed to be matched for presented calories, energy density, macronutrients, sugar, sodium, and fiber. Subjects were instructed to consume as much or as little as desired. Energy intake was greater during the ultra-processed diet (508±106kcal/d;p=0.0001), with increased consumption of carbohydrate (280±54kcal/d; p<0.0001) and fat (230±53kcal/d; p=0.0004) but not protein (-2±12kcal/d; p=0.85).Weight changes were highly correlated with energy intake (r=0.8, p<0.0001) with participants gaining 0.8±0.3kg(p=0.01) during the ultra-processed diet and losing1.1±0.3kg(p=0.001) during the unprocessed diet. Limiting consumption of ultra-processed foods may be an effective strategy for obesity prevention and treatment.
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