NEW DELHI– Even when a processed food appears healthy, it may still slow your weight-loss progress, according to new research from University College London (UCL). The study found that eating minimally processed foods leads to nearly twice as much weight loss as consuming nutritionally matched ultra-processed foods.
Published in Nature Medicine, the study is the first to directly compare minimally processed (MPF) and ultra-processed (UPF) diets with identical nutritional profiles.
“The primary outcome of the trial was to assess percentage changes in weight, and on both diets we saw a significant reduction, but the effect was nearly double on the minimally processed diet,” said Dr. Samuel Dicken, first author from the UCL Centre for Obesity Research.
The trial followed 55 adults, dividing them into two groups. One group began with an eight-week MPF diet — including meals like overnight oats or homemade spaghetti Bolognese — followed by a four-week break before switching to an eight-week UPF diet of items like breakfast oat bars or ready-made lasagna. The second group followed the diets in reverse order.
Of the participants, 50 completed at least one diet phase. Both groups lost weight on both diets, but the MPF diet resulted in a 2.06 percent reduction in body weight versus 1.05 percent on the UPF diet. The extra weight loss came mainly from reductions in fat mass and total body water, with no loss of muscle mass, indicating a healthier overall body composition.
Participants also reported better control over food cravings on the MPF diet. Compared to the UPF diet, the MPF diet yielded twice the improvement in overall craving control, four times greater improvement for savory foods, and nearly twice the improvement in resisting their most-craved items.
The findings highlight the need for broader policy changes, said Professor Chris van Tulleken of UCL’s Division of Infection and Immunity. “This underlines the need to shift the policy focus away from individual responsibility and on to the environmental drivers of obesity, such as the influence of multinational food companies in shaping unhealthy food environments.” (Source: IANS)
