“If two diets are nutritionally equal, according to nutritional guidance, does the level of processing still affect weight and health?”

It’s the question Dr Sam Dicken, a research fellow in the department of behavioural science and health at University College London (UCL), set out to answer in a landmark study published in Nature. The results showed that people who ate a diet of minimally processed foods (MPFs) lost twice the weight as those eating ultra-processed foods (UPFs) – even when both diets met Government healthy-eating guidelines.

In the UK, more than half our calories come from UPFs such as ready meals, breakfast cereals and mass-produced bread. These everyday foods have been linked to more than 30 chronic diseases , including obesity, type 2 diabetes and stroke.

Until

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