A scientist adds nutrients to ultra-processed foods in a major study

At the end of the month, the evidence was compelling and damning: people who eat ultra-processed diets consume more calories and gain more weight, without putting in any effort. It was the first randomized controlled trial of its kind and it changed the way we view ultra-processed foods. “Whole-food” and “plant-based” diets have taken off, and “clean” eating has become trendier than ever as people aggressively try to limit their intake of packaged goods.

But the discovery that people eat about 500 extra calories a day on an ultra-processed diet didn’t convince Hall that convenience foods should be universally avoided.

“What we’re trying to figure out is, very specifically, what is it about ultra-processed foods that seems to be causing overconsumption and weight gain?” Hall told Business Insider.

He wants to understand exactly why ultra-processed foods do what they do and what – if even possible – we can do to make them healthier.

“If you can avoid them, that’s great, but most people can’t,” he said.

So for more than a year, he’s been methodically inviting eighteen volunteers to his special lab in Bethesda, Maryland, to try out some newly formulated, ultra-processed meals. By the time the study is finished, in 2025, at least 36 people will have tried the reformulated foods and been monitored for weight gain and hormonal changes.

Hall is testing two big ideas, hoping that maybe by incorporating some more of the fundamental concepts of food science into ultra-processed food, we can get smarter about our ultra-processed lives and eating. can make you healthier along the way. .

Ultra-processed foods damage our brains

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We’ve known for a long time that ultra-processed foods are linked to all kinds of bad health outcomes, from increased premature death to increased strokes and increased heart attacks.

And we know that refined carbohydrates (white bread, sugar), syrupy drinks (soda, juice), and ultra-processed meats (hot dogs) are among the most dangerous foods in this category.

But whether the entire category – all packaged, ultra-processed foods are inherently bad for us – is still an open question.

One characteristic that sets many ultra-processed foods apart from their unprocessed counterparts is calorie density. Each bite of an ultra-processed meal typically contains more calories, without nearly as much fiber as fresh food. That may be part of the reason ultra-processed diets can lead to overeating, Hall said: simply because every bite is rich and high in fat, yet not very satiating.

Hall’s second major hypothesis is that ultra-processed foods may prompt people to eat more because they are “hyper-palatable,” meaning they are rich in tempting combinations of fat and salt, or fat and sugar, or carbohydrates and salt.

Almost nothing in nature tastes this good to us – one of the few natural ‘hyper tasty’ foods is breast milk. “Breast milk can be sweet and fatty at the same time,” Hall said. Perhaps we are evolutionarily hardwired to find these rarer types of compound foods irresistible, a hard-wired survival instinct.

If we’re cooking from scratch, it’s virtually impossible to add as much sodium and fat as factories do when fusing ultra-processed foods. At home, combo dishes can still be hyper-tasty, but sugar and oil tend to clash with watery vegetables and grains. In Hall’s groundbreaking 2019 study, only about 40% of foods on the unprocessed diet were hyper-palatable, while roughly 70% of foods on the ultra-processed diet consisted of these particularly ‘hyper-palatable’ high salt ratios. sugar, fat and carbohydrates.

If the easiest, cheapest, and fastest dinner option involves filling your plate with mouth-wateringly delicious but low nutritional value, then that’s exactly what you’re going to do. The question is: can we do anything to make hyper-palatable foods a little less harmful?

Change the composition of your plate

For his new experiment, Hall is trying a number of different techniques to investigate the connection between ultra-processing and weight gain.

One idea: Cut back on “hyper-palatable” foods in some ultra-processed meals. So while participants will still consume more calories in each bite than they would if they ate a whole meal, they will (perhaps) be less likely to overeat because the food won’t be as irresistible.

Another idea is to cut calories by simply adding some non-starchy vegetables to a plate of ultra-processed foods.

“For example, you get more salads,” he said.

If adding some vegetables to a ready-made meal normalizes the amount of calories people eat, it could change the way we think about the way we choose processed foods, and perhaps even the way manufacturers make them – if they want to.

Can fast food ever be healthy food?

Hall also has a more surgical technique that he is trying out in the experiment. He’s incorporating fiber supplements into some of the ultra-processed foods—for example, stirring fiber powder into packaged yogurt—to see if that counteracts overeating and improves health outcomes.

This is a simpler idea, which could be picked up by the food production industry if it proves promising. (Major food companies, including Nestle, are already reformulating some packaged foods, such as frozen pizzas, to contain more fiber and protein, targeting patients on appetite-suppressing GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic.)

If ultra-processed foods can actually be reformulated for health, I imagine something more idyllic than just some extra fiber sprinkled into frozen pizzas and yogurt. What about packaged goods aisles with more beans, nuts, seeds and less sugar than before? UPFs may also be a nod to traditional diets that we know work well, such as Mediterranean foods rich in olive oil, lentils, chickpeas and citrus fruits, all relatively shelf-stable foods that experts agree are good for your heart and health. your lifespan. People could eat rice and beans from a bag, or enjoy vacuum-packed vegetables instead of chips. These would be choices that are more health-oriented than a “plant-based” treat like a high-fat pastry, regardless of whether it is homemade or factory-made.

“All the things we’ve known about for a long time” are still worth considering, Hall says, no matter how processed your diet is. Look for nuts, seeds, whole grains like oats or quinoa, black beans, hummus, lentils and – yes – unprocessed fresh fruits and vegetables if you can. Avoid sugary snacks and refined grains. These are “all the things that are already discussed ad nauseam in the dietary guidelines.”