Less processed diet could help adults lose weight twice as quickly, study reports
People lost twice as much weight when eating a minimally processed diet as with an ultraprocessed diet, even when eating nutritionally matched foods, a study published in Nature Medicine has reported.1 Researchers at University College London and UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who carried out the study, said that the results highlighted the impact of ultraprocessed food (UPF) on health outcomes. The study coauthor Chris van Tulleken emphasised the need to shift health policies away from focusing on “individual responsibility and on to the environmental drivers of obesity, such as the influence of multinational food companies in shaping unhealthy food environments.” But some independent experts urged caution in interpreting the results, highlighting methodological limitations of the study. The 2×2 crossover randomised controlled trial split 55 adults with an average “overweight” body mass index (BMI) of 32.7 (BMI ≥25 to <40; habitual UPF intake ≥50% kcal/day) into two groups. One g
