Ultra-processed food drives you to eat more.

[SunSurfer]

A diet of predominantly ultra-processed food has been shown in a controlled trial to result in increased calorie intake and increased levels of hormones associated with hunger. Simply, it drives you to eat more, it's "addictive" food.

And ultra-processed food is the major source of food for many Americans.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/23/processed-foods-american-addiction

[philw]

There's a recent book by a UK medic who I think is also a TV pundit about precisely this. It's a better read than many such things, but that article reads like a selective precis of it:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451300/ultra-processed-people-by-tulleken-chris-van/9781529900057

The initial argument in the book is that we evolved over a very long period of time to deal with food. "industrially produced edible substances", otherwise known as UPF, have only been around for a short period of time, and we aren't evolved to deal with them.

I was surprised on reading the book that it's only relatively recently that research has started to identify the causes of the correlation between obesity and UPF.

Edited June 24, 2023 by philw
fix typo

[dhamann]

kind of like explaining alpine snowboarding to an eight year old on a chairlift, how to get into it, where to buy, what to buy, how size boots, how to learn, etc.

looks fun though. it's a committed and compromised lifestyle for many. the trend is growing, because it's facts. like science.

 

[davekempmeister]

I keep having the thought that;  if a sizable percentage of what one eats is  classified as UPF, and UPF is generally lacking nutrients, one remains “hungry”.

A kid that is deficient in some mineral or another might eat clay from the yard while playing or crave a raw carrot that still has soil on it - sort of analogous to that, I think.

[TVR]

Flame on if you want to call me a conspiracy theorist, but the embedded nature of big pharma into controlling agencies within the US has had a detrimental effect on the food industry and health within the US. 

There are tic-toc videos showing the differences in ingredients in even simple foods like ketchup, and try to eat a meal without some form of soy in it (seriously, try it. Almost every food now has soy in it, including foods where soy has nothing to do with it). Even medications like simple ibuprofen now has titanium dioxide in it (banned in the EU do to being a carcinogen, and there is a class action skittles law suit on going) and more and more we are also seeing the words "bioengineered food source" in ingredients. The irony is, it costs so much more to get food with less ingredients in them.

So, yea, ultra processed foods make you eat more, but this "new" phenomenon is driving a much larger pharmaceutical industry so there is little hope it will change any time soon.

[CB Utah]

Number one, thanks to @SunSurfer and @philw for starting and providing this information.  That’s the other cool part about this forum; other topics we can learn from.

Related to the food and drugs discussions, I have found Russell Brand’s channel to be accurate on these topics.  I stumbled across it one day.  He acts pretty wacky sometimes and his show intro is absolutely sophomoric, but damn, he’s definitely talking with people who know the inside scoop and are upset with what they’re seeing.  
 

[nextcarve]

I know, for many people it's not easy, but the best way to get healthy food is to cook your own meal's with unprocessed, fresh ingredients. Skip or reduce food with a brand on it. It's easier to skip that nestle-kraft-heinz-danone-mars garbage, if you look at their ingredients and inform yourself about the effect it has on your body.

For people who think they have no time for cooking, meal prepping is a good tool to save time and still have your own healthy food. I think it's worth to the spent extra time and do something good to your body; you are what you eat...

Regarding processed food and weight:

A lot of processed food has too much sugar in it, where no sugar is needed or unhealthy oil and fat with saturated fatty acids not good for your health. This is because sugar and this kind of fat are cheap ingredients, both are flavor carriers and your sense of taste will get hooked on this processed food and out of tune.

Most of the processed food has to much short chain carbohydrates (like the sugar mentioned) which rise the blood sugar level too fast and if these calories are not used by your brain or muscles, they are stored as fat reserves in your body and you are hungry again. This leads to more weight and a higher risk of diabetes. If you eat the same amount of calories but reduce this kind of carbohydrates and shift more towards healty fat or oil with unsaturated fatty acids and proteins, the blood sugar level will rise slower, be more stable and you will feel saturated longer and not hungry so fast, because the calories are not in your fat depots, but is longer available in your blood to do the physical and mental work you have to do. This way you don't have to eat all time and get fat, while still be full of energy.