Processed foods do have their own allure for their lovers. Its delicious taste and practicality make most people prefer them over fresh ingredients. Most processed foods haveflavour such as salt, sugar, oil, fat, and certain additives added to them to create the same taste as the original ingredients. This type of food is often called ultra-processed foods.

Speaking of processed foods, there have been many studies that show the negative effects of consuming these types of food — starting from the high risk of obesity, diabetes, to heart disease. This can not be separated from the high additives in processed foods that can hurtyour health. According to a recent study conducted by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, processed food, especially ultra-processed ones, can cause an increase in body weight and a person's calorie intake.

In their research, the researchers found that ultra-processed foods can affect the eating patterns of people who consume them and increase their weight. This result was obtained after observing 20 participants, where some of them were given ultra-processed food randomly for two weeks while the rest were given unprocessed food.

The ultra-processed food was bagels with a mixture of cream cheese and meat, while the non-processed food was oatmeal with a mixture of bananas, walnuts and skim milk. Both foods have the same number of calories and sugar, fibre, fat, and carbohydrate. The results showed that those who consumed ultra-processed food had an average body weight increase of 0.9 Kg. Also, they have an extra 500 calories intake compared to those who consume the non-processed food.

Text by Anggie Triana
Stock photo from Pixabay

Source(s):

• Hall, K.D., Ayuketah, A., Brychta, R., et all (2019). Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitium Food Intake. Cell Metabolism, DOI: 10.1016 / j.cmet.2019.05.008.
• Science Daily - Heavily processed foods cause overeating and weight gain, study finds (2019). https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190516114550.htm, 21 May 2019.