Empowered Health Course · Lesson 22 · 3:27
We've looked at the increased risk of obesity with ultra-processed foods. Here's a fascinating study, to get a little sciency. Dr. Kevin Hall, an obesity researcher at the National Institutes of Health in the United States (originally Canadian), brought a group of people into something called a metabolic ward. For weeks, they lived in an enclosed setting where every morsel of food and every calorie — eaten or expended, including the energy we spend just keeping the body alive — was carefully measured.
He compared more ultra-processed food versus more unprocessed, whole foods, to see what happened to calorie intake and body weight. He found that the ultra-processed diet led to markedly increased calorie intake — about 500 extra calories a day — and significant weight gain, even over just two weeks. The foods were matched for palatability and familiarity, so there's some uncertain quality of ultra-processed foods driving the increased intake — an area of ongoing research.
Any healthy pattern of eating — Mediterranean, low-carb, vegetarian — has a common denominator: reducing ultra-processed, packaged foods. That's why eating well is like swimming upstream in our society, where up to 70% of our calories in Canada come from ultra-processed foods. It's become part of our culture. Eating more whole foods takes time, money, learning, and a change in habits, along with some restraint at times. That's the task at hand: making space for it, and considering how to reduce ultra-processed foods.
This transcript has been lightly edited from the video for readability. For the complete experience, please watch the video above.