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The key to sustainable weight loss is making dietary changes that you’re willing to stick to. Choosing to fuel your body with healthy nutrients and whole foods is a good place to start. Plus, by working to incorporate less processed foods into your meal plan, you can start seeing results while avoiding harsh, restrictive dieting.
Need more convincing? Keep reading to find out exactly how processed foods affect your body (and your ability to lose weight).
Isabel Smith, MS, RD, CDN, and founder of Isabel Smith Nutrition, tells Eat This, Not That! how processed foods can impact the way your body breaks down food.
She explains, "The body spends a lot of time trying to figure out what's what and then breaking down all these foreign, which can zap your energy. Since our body is not able to do what it should be doing, there is a lot of energy wasted."
Plus, processed foods are addictive."These foods are so hard to say no to because they are loaded with added sugars and fats, which physically change how they feel inside the mouth," Lauren Minchen MPH, RDN, CDN, explains. "The altered texture and taste actually make the body crave more of it."
This makes keeping these foods in moderation even more challenging.
According to Medical News Today, a 2019 study showed that a diet high in ultra-processed led to more weight gain than a diet of unprocessed foods, even when they "matched the ultra-processed and unprocessed diets" for nutrients like sugar, fat, salt, and fiber.
Both groups ate three meals per day and were encouraged to eat as much as they wanted. However, the group eating processed foods ending up consuming way more.
The article explains, "When the volunteers were on the ultra-processed diet, they ate an average of 508 calories more each day than when they were on the unprocessed diet. As a result, they put on an average of 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) during this time, mostly in the form of body fat."
"Participants in the unprocessed food group lost an average of 0.9 kg during the 2 week study period. This group also saw increases in the gut hormone peptide YY, which suppresses hunger, and decreases in the hunger hormone ghrelin," the article adds.
With that in mind, keeping these addictive foods in moderation is a crucial part of a healthier diet, and it can be especially important for anyone hoping to drop a few pounds.
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