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You enter the supermarket with the idea of eating better. You fill the cart with “high in fiber” bars, whole grains, 0% yogurts and vegetable protein milkshakes. Everything sounds healthy. Everything fits into the diet that you promised to follow on Monday. But according to the most recent science, you may be falling into a very common trap: that of the ultra -processed who disguise themselves as healthy.
Healthy ultraprocesses? A new clinical trial, Posted in Nature Medicine magazineled by Samuel Dicken of the University College London, has he managed to answer this doubtful doubt: An ultra -processed with good nutritional profile is equally healthy as a natural food? The answer has been very blunt: no. Although these products meet the recommended values of sugar, salt or fat, their impact on the body is different.
Science behind. For eight weeks, 55 adults overweight or obesity followed two different diets: one based on “healthy” ultraprocessed foods, such as frozen lasagers, cereals ready to consume and vegetable milkshakes; and another composed of minimally processed foods, such as homemade spaghetti, natural yogurt and fruits.
Both diets complied with the official nutritional guides of the United Kingdom (Eatwell Guide), which allowed to compare the impact of processing, beyond nutrients.
The result was revealing. The participants lost twice the weight with the minimally processed food diet and more than double body fat.
But that was not all. Spontaneously – and without restrictions or portion control – the participants ate less calories when their diet was based on unproacted foods. According to the epidemiologist Filippa Juul, by Suny Downstate, consulted by The New York TimesThis is explained because minimally processed foods have less caloric density and require more chewing, which favors satiety. “Ultraprocesses have less texture, chew faster and stimulate appetite artificially,” Juul has summarized.
If the results are projected to one year, researchers estimate that a diet based on natural foods could mean a loss of up to 13% of body weight in men and 9% in women. In the diet with ultra -processed, that figure would fall to between 4 and 5%.
What distinguishes an ultra -processing food? The classification of food according to their degree of processing does not depend solely on their ingredients, but also on how they have been transformed. According to the study descriptionultraprocessed foods include “ingredients that are rarely used in domestic cuisine, such as emulsifiers, sweeteners, artificial flavors or flavor enhancers”, while minimally processed foods retain their natural shape and require a simpler preparation: fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, whole cereals, natural yogurt, etc.
A “healthy” cereal bar can have added fiber, but it also usually contains syrups, stabilizers and artificial flavors. In contrast, a bowl of oats soaked overnight and mixed with fresh fruit and natural yogurt is a minimally processed food that provides fiber in its natural form and without additives.
So what is really healthy? The study does not seek to generate alarm, but it does leave a clear message: it is not enough to look at the label numbers if the product is outrageous. How is done also matters. Nutritionist Brenda Davy, cited by The New York Timessummarizes it thus: “Cooking more at home, using recognizable ingredients and avoiding products with endless component lists remains the best recipe to take care of our health.”
Along the same lines, Adrian Brown, co -author of the study, warns in The Guardian that the labels do not always tell the whole story: “The nutritional labeling does not capture the level of processing. Many products that seem healthy do not show warnings, but remain UPF.”
The environment: a primary factor. As noted by doctor Chris Van Tulleken, author of the Ultra-Procedure Book People, the current food environment hinders healthy choice. “We cannot continue to blame the individual for a hostile food environment. The ultra -processed are cheaper, they are everywhere and are designed to hook,” has declared in The Guardian. Therefore, the authors of the study advocate public policies: better labels, marketing and tax regulations that favor access to fresh foods.
Less tags, more real food. Although the study has limitations (short duration and small sample), its conclusions reinforce an increasingly solid scientific trend: minimally processed foods work better to control weight, reduce cravings and eat less effortlessly.
And although it is not necessary to completely eliminate the ultraprocessed – the reality and the routines do not always allow it -, it is possible to recover control from the kitchen. The evidence is clear: it is not just what we eat. It is how what we eat is done.
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