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Comment by djoldman | Hacker News Reader

Seems like the cited studies confirm things we already know: when humans are given tasty high caloric-density foods, they consume more calories than when not given those foods.

I didn't see a cited study showing that these ultra-processed foods led to worse outcomes when caloric intake was held constant. Did I miss something?

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No you didn’t miss anything. Everyone is freaking out about “processed” and “chemicals” and ignoring the obvious answer: high calories and low nutrition.

The processed and chemicals may be a proxy for high calories low nutrition, but generally they are used to create hyper palatable foods that are low nutrition. In general, it's quite hard and expensive to produce high palatable foods using real ingredients; food engineering changes that and makes it easy for cheap food to mess with our senses. As far as I can tell, this is the generally accepted argument for the problems with UPFs - they make people want to eat more cheap crap food.

I haven't read the article, but research has identified several components of processed foods that are detrimental to health beyond their caloric content. *Trans fats*, often found in hydrogenated oils, raise bad cholesterol levels and are linked to heart disease and diabetes[3]. *Added sugars* and high fructose corn syrup, prevalent in many processed foods, increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease[1][3]. *Sodium* is another common additive that can lead to hypertension and cardiovascular issues[1][3]. Additionally, *refined carbohydrates* cause rapid blood sugar spikes, contributing to metabolic disorders[3]. These components collectively contribute to chronic health conditions and increased mortality risk[2][4].

Citations: [1] https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/processed-foods/ [2] https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/what-... [3] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318630 [4] https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/ultraprocessed-foods-bad-f... [5] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6146358/ [6] https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3781462... [7] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10260459/ [8] https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/06/27/ultra-pro...

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