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"While we attempted to match several nutritional parameters between the diets, the ultra-processed versus unprocessed meals differed substantially in the propor

"While we attempted to match several nutritional parameters between the diets, the ultra-processed versus unprocessed meals differed substantially in the proportion of added to total sugar (54% versus 1%, respectively)." It's an interesting study, but I would still like to see more strict calorie for calorie, and macro for macro match. By allowing the participants to eat freely and by having so much more sugar in the processed diet, all this really shows is that processed diet was leaving participants more hungry so they ate more.

claudiulodro 7y ago
> processed diet was leaving participants more hungry so they ate more. That sounds compatible with the "Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain" conclusion in my opinion.
- ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
  I wasn't saying the conclusion was wrong, just perhaps too obvious. Eating whole foods is healthier than eating packaged foods is pretty intuitive at this point. In a study that did not allow free eating, we could have gone further to find out if a 100% controlled ultra processed diet, was still worse for you the subject that a calorie matched diet based on whole foods.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
throwanem 7y ago
They appear to have matched sugar for sugar between the diets, with the difference being that the processed diet had much more added sugar. Letting the participants eat ad libitum was a deliberate part of the study design, which was intended to develop information about whether an ultra-processed diet encourages eating more in terms of food energy than an unprocessed diet does. I'd be curious to know how you would modify the study design to achieve that end while also eliminating ad libitum intake.
smaddox 7y ago
[Sugar is already a known cause of obesity](https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM). The food being processed is irrelevant other than the important observation that processed foods tend to have lots of added sugar.
- mywittyname 7y ago
  > The food being processed is irrelevant It's absolutely relevant, considering the conclusion of the study was that people feel less satiated after eating a diet high in processed food, thus continue to eat and consume more calories.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - smaddox 7y ago
    My point is that the conclusion is specious.
thorwasdfasdf 7y ago
>> "all this really shows is that processed diet was leaving participants more hungry so they ate more. " This is 99.9% of the reason why people are overweight. Every biological being eats until they're full(the body stops sending hunger signals). this is true for human, as it is ducks, monkeys, dogs or pretty much any other animal. For many, eating junk food/processed foods, breaks this satiety mechanism (and not just in the short run, there may be long term effects that prevent people from going back to normal). Not being hungry, having satiety is the holy grail of weight management. Unfortunately, we don't have the means to produce satiety without calories. Yes, fiber/protein/micronutrients densities do help a little, but it does not help enough. And there hasn't been enough studies on it. Other than the Holtz studies I haven't found much done on this subject.
- ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
  There are a number of prescription weight loss medications that increase the feeling of satiety. Maybe you meant that we haven't found a way to do it without side effects? https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/prescription-medications-treat-overweight-obesity https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-manageme...

claudiulodro 7y ago

> processed diet was leaving participants more hungry so they ate more. That sounds compatible with the "Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain" conclusion in my opinion.

ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
I wasn't saying the conclusion was wrong, just perhaps too obvious. Eating whole foods is healthier than eating packaged foods is pretty intuitive at this point. In a study that did not allow free eating, we could have gone further to find out if a 100% controlled ultra processed diet, was still worse for you the subject that a calorie matched diet based on whole foods.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

throwanem 7y ago

They appear to have matched sugar for sugar between the diets, with the difference being that the processed diet had much more added sugar. Letting the participants eat ad libitum was a deliberate part of the study design, which was intended to develop information about whether an ultra-processed diet encourages eating more in terms of food energy than an unprocessed diet does. I'd be curious to know how you would modify the study design to achieve that end while also eliminating ad libitum intake.

smaddox 7y ago

[Sugar is already a known cause of obesity](https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM). The food being processed is irrelevant other than the important observation that processed foods tend to have lots of added sugar.

mywittyname 7y ago
> The food being processed is irrelevant It's absolutely relevant, considering the conclusion of the study was that people feel less satiated after eating a diet high in processed food, thus continue to eat and consume more calories.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- smaddox 7y ago
  My point is that the conclusion is specious.

thorwasdfasdf 7y ago

>> "all this really shows is that processed diet was leaving participants more hungry so they ate more. " This is 99.9% of the reason why people are overweight. Every biological being eats until they're full(the body stops sending hunger signals). this is true for human, as it is ducks, monkeys, dogs or pretty much any other animal. For many, eating junk food/processed foods, breaks this satiety mechanism (and not just in the short run, there may be long term effects that prevent people from going back to normal). Not being hungry, having satiety is the holy grail of weight management. Unfortunately, we don't have the means to produce satiety without calories. Yes, fiber/protein/micronutrients densities do help a little, but it does not help enough. And there hasn't been enough studies on it. Other than the Holtz studies I haven't found much done on this subject.

ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
There are a number of prescription weight loss medications that increase the feeling of satiety. Maybe you meant that we haven't found a way to do it without side effects? https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/prescription-medications-treat-overweight-obesity https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-manageme...