3015: Quality Calories for Weight Management? by Nancy Clark on Ultra-Processed Foods and A Healthy Lifestyle

[00:00:01] Wenn jemand Charles und Melanie gesagt hätte, dass sie nach ihrem Tinder-Match gemeinsam einen Channel mit Crazy Aufgaben starten, also wirklich crazy, fünf Tage auf einer einsamen Insel verbringen, eine Zipline an einem Gurt runterrasen, eine Million Views knacken, eine Wand mit Saugnöpfen hochklettern und Fallschirm springen in Ägypten? Das hätten die beiden niemals geglaubt. Aber das ist das Ding mit Tinder. Es führt dich an Orte, die du nie erwartet hättest. Wohin es dich auch führt. It starts with a swipe. Tinder.

[00:00:29] Kennt ihr auch diesen einen Freund, der morgens einfach so ruckzuck aus dem Bett und danach aus dem Grinsen gar nicht mehr rauskommt? Der sogar noch vor dem ersten Kaffee unverschämt gut gelaunt ist und mit der Morgensonne um die Wette strahlt? Furchtbar. Ekelhaft. Wie kann man nur so... Ausgeruht sein? Ganz einfach. Trainiere deinen Schlaf und werde auch du zum Morgenmenschen. Mit der Galaxy Watch 7 oder dem Galaxy Ring und der Samsung Health App.

[00:00:55] This is Optimal Health Daily. Quality calories for weight management by Nancy Clark of nancyclarkrd.com. And I'm Dr. Neil. Happy Sunday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily where I simply read to you from the best health and fitness blogs for free. It's kind of like an audiobook but with articles instead. And articles from a bunch of different authors. And always with permission from the sites, of course.

[00:01:20] Now on Fridays I answer your questions. Remember you can send in a question by going to oldpodcast.com slash ask or email your question directly to health at oldpodcast.com. Alright and with that, let's hear today's article and continue optimizing your life. Quality calories for weight management by Nancy Clark of nancyclarkrd.com.

[00:01:50] If you are like most athletes, you are busy juggling work, workouts, family, and life. You likely eat meals and snacks on the run, grabbing an energy bar here, a frozen meal there, and a protein shake to go. You can easily fuel yourself with highly processed foods that are ready to heat or ready to eat. While you can choose a nutritionally well-balanced diet when eating on the run,

[00:02:15] you might want to pay attention to the amount of ultra-processed foods that sneak into your meals and snacks. They have a food matrix far different from natural foods, and they might have an impact on your weight and health. What are ultra-processed foods? Cooked eggs, canned beans, and dried raisins are all considered processed foods. Technically speaking, a processed food is one that has been altered from its original form.

[00:02:43] The foods have been cooked, dried, or canned in a way that's safe for your health. Ultra-processed foods include fast foods, sugary drinks, chips, candies, sweetened cereals, and so on. They span the spectrum from minimally processed foods that are prepared to make them edible like bran flakes, to industrial formulations with five or more ingredients than Cap'n Crunch.

[00:03:08] Ultra-processed foods commonly have added flavors, sugars, fats, preservatives, and ingredients that you're unlikely to have stocked in your pantry, such as sodium benzoate. These foods are designed to be convenient, ready to eat, palatable, affordable, and welcomed as replacements for freshly prepared meals and snacks. More than half the calories consumed in the U.S. come from ultra-processed foods.

[00:03:33] Think packaged soups, instant noodles, frozen meals, hot dogs, and cake mixes. The foods tend to be high in calories, salt, and fat, and low in fiber. Ultra-processed foods can be marketed as natural, healthy, and organic. Now those words don't refer to the process of how the food was made. Yes, your favorite all-natural organic energy bar likely counts as an ultra-processed food.

[00:04:00] A diet rich in ultra-processed foods has been associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke. While these foods might not cause those health problems, people with health issues are more likely to consume a fair amount of ultra-processed foods. We need more research to determine if these easy-to-overeat foods are the problem. After all, we often hear, I can't eat just one. Or if their high caloric density makes them easier to over-consume.

[00:04:30] Ultra-processed foods and your waistline. Speaking at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2019 Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, Kevin Hall, PhD of the National Institutes of Health, spoke about the ease of weight gain among those who eat a plethora of ultra-processed foods. He conducted a study in which 20 healthy adults, 10 men and 10 women,

[00:04:53] ate as much or as little as they wanted for 14 days from a buffet of minimally processed or ultra-processed foods. The buffets were matched for calories, sugar, fiber, carbohydrate, protein, fat, and salt. The subjects rated both diets as being equally palatable. Yet, when the subjects ate from the ultra-processed buffet, they consumed about 500 calories above their baseline intake,

[00:05:21] and they gained about 2 pounds in 2 weeks. Now, some of that weight gain can be attributed to water weight, given the ultra-processed foods they chose were higher in sodium than their standard diet. When the subjects ate the unprocessed diet, they chose their typical caloric intake, yet they lost about 2 pounds in 2 weeks. How could that be? Some weight loss was related to water weight loss,

[00:05:46] but some might be related to a higher amount of calories needed to digest the whole foods. This is called the thermic effect of food, the increase in the body's metabolic rate related to the consumption, digestion, metabolism, and storage of food. Foods in their natural state take more energy to be digested and metabolized than highly processed foods. For example, a grilled cheese sandwich made with whole wheat bread and cheddar cheese

[00:06:12] uses about 20% of the ingested calories to digest and metabolize the nutrients. In contrast, the same sandwich made with white bread and processed American cheese uses only 11% of ingested calories. Ultra-processed foods tend to be high in simple-to-digest sugar, with a low thermic effect. They also tend to be low in fiber. However, fiber calories are not readily accessible to the body. As written on the food label, almonds, for example,

[00:06:41] reportedly offer 170 calories per ounce, or per 23 almonds. The reality is, your body can access only 130 of those calories. Therefore, fiber-rich plant foods can be better for your waistline and your overall health. Processing changes the food structure, or the food matrix, and this impacts satiety, the feeling of fullness that persists after eating. The more a food is processed, the lower its satiety,

[00:07:10] likely related to its higher glycemic response, or the rise in blood glucose. Simply put, devouring 500 calories of 10 ultra-processed Oreos is far easier than chewing through 500 calories of almonds, which would be about 70 almonds. And those Oreos would be far less satiating. The bottom line. At this time, we have no long-term data to confirm that ultra-processed foods cause obesity,

[00:07:38] but they are certainly associated with obesity. Dr. Hall is planning another study to look at the impact of energy density on calorie intake. Until then, common sense tells us for weight management, our best bet is to snack on whole grains, fresh and dried fruits, nuts, and other minimally processed foods. Limiting ultra-processed foods could be part of an effective weight management strategy.

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[00:10:02] Now, I love it when authors like Nancy talk about published studies. So, I really appreciated it when Nancy shared some of the published research studies that relate to the consumption of ultra-processed foods and weight gain. Now, another area that's being studied, as Nancy addressed, were the health effects of ultra-processed foods. And specifically, what they're looking at is how ultra-processed foods might affect the gut microbiome. Now, remember, when we talk about the gut microbiome,

[00:10:30] we're talking about good bacteria in the intestines. And we're talking about what types and how many of these good bacteria there are. And so, when we're talking about ultra-processed foods, of course, we're talking about foods that have a lot of added sugar, saturated fat, and salt. A meta-analysis found that these types of ultra-processed foods can contribute to a gut microbiome that's not as healthy, which in turn can lead to those diseases that Nancy talked about earlier,

[00:10:59] like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer and dementia. So, I would say today's author, Nancy, was right that ultra-processed foods could increase the risk of weight gain. But that's only part of the story. We might find that these foods may also contribute to other conditions too. Does that mean we have to now avoid all ultra-processed foods that we can never have, say, Oreos ever again? No. I mean, after all, I love me my donuts. But, if we can consume less of them,

[00:11:28] it may make a pretty significant difference when it comes to our overall health. All right, that'll do it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being here every day. Thank you for sharing this show with someone. That's one of the best ways to keep this show going. And I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. And I'll be back here tomorrow as usual where your optimal life awaits.