Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake

Lower intake of animal-based products links to improved weight status, independent of depressive symptoms and personality in the general population

“…The positive association between restriction of meat products on weight status and the lack of a significant correlation for secondary animal products found in this study and previously by others 46–48 could possibly be explained by a higher proportion of highly processed meat items, leading to higher net energy intake and potentially to higher caloric intake 49 . Further, ongoing discussions on motivations for following certain diets support the view that restraint eating is not directly linked to vegetarian or vegan diets but more common in flexitarians who restrict meat intake with the goal of weight control, which in contrast is not the most common driver in plant-based dieters 50 .…”

Hyper‐Palatable Foods: Development of a Quantitative Definition and Application to the US Food System Database

“…Because of this, the HPF criteria have the potential to elucidate palatability-based mechanisms that may underlie associations in the broader literature between a variety of dietary indices and obesity-related outcomes, including energy-dense and ultraprocessed foods. For example, a recent study established a causal relationship between ultraprocessed food consumption and weight gain; however, the authors noted that their study did not identify the mechanism within ultraprocessed foods driving their outcomes (52). The HPF definition may shed light onto such an underlying mechanism and should be investigated in the future.…”

Ultra-Processed Food Consumption among the Paediatric Population: An Overview and Call to Action from the European Childhood Obesity Group

“…Recent research implicating UPF in the direct causation of weight gain and obesity in adults [38] is the most robust assessment of this association to date and there seems to be generally consistent evidence to suggest that these causal effects translate to the paediatric population, affecting body composition over time [39]. While the mechanisms driving these influences are yet to be fully identified, the role of the protein leverage hypothesis in partially explaining the increase in energy intake, the increase in meal eating rate, and changes in the appetite suppressing hormones and hunger hormones with a UPF diet have been acknowledged [38].…”