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Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake
Hall, Kevin D.; Ayuketah, Alexis; Brychta, Robert; Cai, Hongyi; Cassimatis, Thomas; Chen, Kong Y.; Chung, Stephanie T.; Costa, Elise; Courville, Amber; Darcey, Valerie; Fletcher, Laura A.; Forde, Ciaran G.; Gharib, Ahmed M.; Guo, Juen; Howard, Rebecca; Joseph, Paule V.; McGehee, Suzanne; Ouwerkerk, Ronald; Raisinger, Klaudia; Rozga, Irene; Stagliano, Michael; Walter, Mary; Walter, Peter J.; Yang, Shanna; Zhou, Megan
Abstract:
We investigated whether ultra-processed foods affect energy intake in 20 weight-stable adults, aged (mean ± SE) 31.2 ± 1.6 years and BMI = 27 ± 1.5 kg/m2. Subjects were admitted to the NIH Clinical Center and randomized to receive either ultra-processed or unprocessed diets for 2 weeks immediately followed by the alternate diet for 2 weeks. Meals were designed to be matched for presented calories, energy density, macronutrients, sugar, sodium, and fiber. Subjects were instructed to consume as much or as little as desired. Energy intake was greater during the ultra-processed diet (508 ± 106 kcal/day; p = 0.0001), with increased consumption of carbohydrate (280 ± 54 kcal/day; p < 0.0001) and fat (230 ± 53 kcal/day; p = 0.0004), but not protein (-2 ± 12 kcal/day; p = 0.85). Weight changes were highly correlated with energy intake (r = 0.8, p
Automatic Tags
energy intake; processed food; energy balance
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