New Delhi, Aug 5
Following a healthy diet to lose weight? Make sure it's minimally processed, suggests a study, which showed that reducing processing could help to sustain a healthy weight.
In a first, researchers from the University College London (UCL) nutritionally matched minimally processed (MPF) and ultra-processed (UPF) diets.
The results, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed that participants lost twice as much weight eating minimally processed foods compared to ultra-processed foods.
“The primary outcome of the trial was to assess percentage changes in weight, and on both diets, we saw a significant reduction, but the effect was nearly double on the minimally processed diet,” said Dr Samuel Dicken, first author of the study from the UCL Centre for Obesity Research.
The trial split 55 adults into two groups. One group started with an eight-week diet of MPF, such as overnight oats or homemade spaghetti Bolognese.
After a four-week ‘washout’ period during which participants went back to their normal diet, they switched to a diet of UPF, such as breakfast oat bars or a lasagne ready meal. The other group completed the diets in the opposite order. In total, 50 participants completed at least one diet.