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Avoiding ultraprocessed foods might double weight loss

- ALICE CALLAHAN

New US research suggests that people can lose more weight by avoiding ultraprocessed foods, even those that are typically considered healthy.

The study, published earlier this month in the journal Nature Medicine, is the largest and longest clinical trial yet to examine the effects of ultraprocessed foods on weight. Participants lost twice as much weight when they followed diets made up of minimally processed foods, like pasta, chicken, fruits and vegetables, as they did when they followed diets with ultraprocessed foods that met nutrition standards, such as ready-to-heat frozen meals, breakfast cereals, protein bars and shakes.

Federal officials have been sounding the alarm about ultraprocessed foods, which account for about 70% of the food supply in the United States. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, said that ultraprocessed foods were “poisoning” Americans, and called them a primary culprit of high rates of obesity and chronic diseases.

Although numerous studies have linked ultraprocessed foods to obesity, most have been observational, meaning they can’t prove that the foods directly cause weight gain.

Two previous trials found that adults consumed about 500 to 800 more calories per day when their diets were made up of ultraprocessed foods than when they were made up of minimally processed foods. But those studies were small and short; the larger of the two, conducted at the National Institutes of Health, included 20 participants who followed each diet for just two weeks. Critics have argued that the results might have been different if the trials were longer, or if they included healthier ultraprocessed foods.

The new study, though still small, was designed to address some of those concerns, said Samuel Dicken, a research fellow at University College London, and the lead author of the study.

LOSING WEIGHT AND BODY FAT