Study: Energy Expenditure in Whole vs Processed Foods

Iwishyouwell

Hopefully we can get some more thoughts on this study.

vismal

Decent read but my 3 chief complaints are as follows:

1. Small sample size

2. Processed meal had less protein then whole food meal which the study itself agreed effects thermic effect of the meal.

3. The whole food meal had 3 times as much fiber as the processed meal. The study also admitted that the effects of fiber on thermic effect of food are poorly known but that fiber does increase the time taken to digest food. Also fiber plays a huge role in satiety. I would like to see a similar study with equal levels of protein and fiber in both meals.

lindsey1979

Decent read but my 3 chief complaints are as follows:

1. Small sample size

2. Processed meal had less protein then whole food meal which the study itself agreed effects thermic effect of the meal.

3. The whole food meal had 3 times as much fiber as the processed meal. The study also admitted that the effects of fiber on thermic effect of food are poorly known but that fiber does increase the time taken to digest food. Also fiber plays a huge role in satiety. I would like to see a similar study with equal levels of protein and fiber in both meals.

I agree with you generally, though I think one of the major differences with highly processed food is usually the lack of fiber. Sure, some of it has fiber in it, but as a broad brush, that's not the case and why certain foods spike your insulin so much (like white bread -- or the difference between juice and eating the whole fruit/veggies). That sort of goes to the heart of at least one of the processing vs. whole food arguments -- that highly processed foods tend to be stripped of their fiber more than the whole food.

Mr_Knight

"multi grain bread" nor "cheddar cheese" are neither whole foods nor unprocessed foods. And they're certainly not "as found in nature" foods.

Graelwyn75

You guys rock. Thanks for the conjecture.


Anecdotally it makes sense to me. It lines up with some observations I've made in the past regarding weight loss where I ate a heavily plant and meat based diet, with very little heavily processed foods, and was able to eat more calories, and still lose weight than I'd experienced on a heavily processed diet. But after reading time and again that all calories are pretty much processed the same, I let it go and just assumed my anecdotal evidence was wrong. That never truly felt right, but I did let it go.

Looking forward to further thoughts on this study and more empirical observations.

I had the same experience. When eating a diet comprising mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts, eggs, fish, potatoes, cheese, greek yoghurt and some meat, I could eat a lot before gaining weight. I was at times getting through half a pound of almonds a day and it did not seem to impact my weight. I was training pretty hard too, but I have long felt that there is a difference in how our bodies respond to more natural foods.

Iwishyouwell

Really good point regarding the fiber Vismal. I can see that being the key.