- Ultra-processed foods tend to be energy-dense and soft, making them easy to overeat.
- Sam Dicken, a nutrition researcher, tries to avoid UPFs because he naturally has a big appetite.
- He shared how he avoids overeating without having to check labels, including paying attention to a food's texture.
Sam Dicken is a scientist who researches the potential harms of ultra-processed foods, like store-bought cookies and pizza. Despite what he knows, these kinds of food are often manufactured to be so easy to overeat that even he struggles to control himself around them.
"My appetite is huge," the researcher at the Centre for Obesity Research at UCL in London told Business Insider. "I find it really easy to just keep on eating."
But Dicken has a few clever tricks to practice moderation when eating less nutritious foods, which go beyond simply trying to decipher from the label whether they are ultra-processed.
UPFs are made with ingredients you wouldn't find in a regular kitchen, such as stabilizers and gums, are highly marketed, and shelf-stable.
Part of what makes them so easy to overeat is that this combination can make UPFs hyperpalatable — meaning they contain an appetizing combination of fat, salt, or sugar and are soft in texture, Dicken said. All this can mean they are also energy-dense, containing a large number of calories per gram of food.
Scientists are working to uncover whether its the effects of additives, processing, or the nutritional content of UPFs that means a diet high in them is associated with a host of health problems. These include obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers.
UPF is a vague category, so to keep his appetite in check, Dicken thinks about the following three things when deciding what to eat.
Energy density
UPFs like donuts are energy-dense, while vegetables have low energy density, or fewer calories.
Jamie Grill Photography/Getty Images
Dicken needs to eat a large volume of food to feel satisfied, he said, so one thing he really looks out for is how energy-dense a food is.
Fruits and vegetables are not energy-dense because they contain very few calories per gram, meaning he is happy to eat them to his heart's desire, while foods like chocolate and sugar-sweetened drinks are very energy-dense.
"You can have 1,000 calories of strawberries, and it's a massive pile," he said. "And 1,000 calories of chocolate in front of me, it's a tiny plate."
"That's what I do if I go to a supermarket, I always have a look at the energy density. I know that's a big factor for me," he said.
Texture
UPFs tend to be low in fiber and thereforehave a soft, easy-to-eat, texture, Dicken said. Take cheese puffs for example: you can eat a handful in seconds barely even chewing. For this reason, he takes into account how soft a food is when deciding what to eat. If he's hungry, he'll opt for something crunchy like a carrot or nuts.
When you have a snack that's really energy dense with a soft texture, "it's very easy to over consume" he said.
It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to send a signal to the brain letting it know you're full. Chewing slowly and taking more time with each bite means that the body has enough time to process that it's full before you overeat, Dicken said.
Follow recommended dietary guidelines
Dicken recommends following national dietary guidelines before trying to reduce UPFs.
istetiana/Getty Images
Above all, Dicken tries to make sure he's following UK national dietary guidelines, such as: eating five portions of fruits and vegetables a day, limiting salt, sugar, saturated fat, and red meat, and eating plenty of fresh produce.
Trying to consume fewer UPFs can improve your diet, he said, as it typically involves eating and preparing more fresh, whole foods.
However, if focusing on UPFs is not moving you closer to the national dietary guidance, "I wouldn't do it," he said.
UPFs are convenient, and if a busy parent relies on supplementing their diet with pre-cooked meats or protein powder, for example, which might be considered ultra-processed, forgoing those may just lead to nutritional gaps in their diet, Dicken said.
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