Imagine taking a monthlong retreat where your focus is to eat regularly available foods selected and prepared for you by dietitians. In 2019, 20 healthy volunteers—10 men and 10 women of roughly the same age and body mass index (BMI)—did this for a study at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
For two weeks, half the group received three meals per day of ultra-processed foods such as potato chips, sugar-sweetened drinks, French fries, and processed meats, including bacon, sausage, and cold cuts. The other half ate three meals a day of minimally processed foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, milk, eggs, fish, and meat.
Each group then switched menus to spend the next two weeks on the opposite diet. Dietitians carefully calibrated both diets to contain identical amounts of calories, sugars, fiber, fat, salt, and carbohydrates. The groups had up to 60 minutes to eat as much as they wanted of each meal.
The results? Read the full article at brighammag.org.
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