New clinical study aims to understand health impacts, mechanisms behind ultra-processed foods

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — Ultra-processed foods have exploded in the U.S., just as rates of obesity and other diet-related diseases are also on the rise.

They make up more than 70% of the U.S. food supply. Think of them as foods you can’t make at home: stuff that is industrially-produced and may contain things like added colors or preservatives.

Ultra-processed foods are often considered bad for people, but scientists are just starting to answer the question of how they may be bad for us.

“It’s very difficult to study how foods and diets influence health in humans,” said Kevin Hall, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health. “We have these links that are saying that diets high in ultra-processed foods are at least associated with a variety of poor health outcomes. What we don’t know is what is the mechanism underlying those links.”

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The National Institutes of Health just conducted a unique study: participants agreed to spend a month living in a clinical center where they were closely monitored and fed meticulously-designed meals. One week could include fresh salads, another week had meatball subs.

It is only the second clinical trial of its kind to measure what happens when people eat different types of processed foods.

“Our studies have a variety of limitations, but one of the advantages is that we take complete control over people’s food environments, and we can measure exactly what they eat,” Hall said.

Sam Srisatta, a 20-year-old Florida college student, spent a month living inside a government hospital in Bethesda, Maryland last year. He mostly played video games as scientists documented every morsel of food that went into his mouth.

“So, everything is decided for me. The only choice I have is my water – how much I can drink,” Srisatta said. “I do have three monitors on me that track my movement so they know, like, how, I think, active I am.”

The staff prepares all the meals for the studies. Their menus, serving about 6,000 calories per day, carefully controlling nutrients across different diets.

“So we match nutrients in terms of energy, carbohydrate, protein and fats, and then as well as sodium, dietary fiber and total sugar,” said Sara Turner, a National Institutes of Health dietician.

For Srisatta, one day he was fed chicken nuggets for lunch, which he said was “kind of like a treat.”

“But yeah, chicken nuggets, some chips, some ketchup. It was pretty fulfilling, which I kind of enjoyed,” Srisatta said.

They are also controlling for two specific qualities that they suspect led to weight gain in the first study: energy density, or how many calories per bite something has, and hyper palatability, when certain combinations of nutrients make you want to eat more.

“We’re giving them very simple instructions. Just eat as much or as little as you like. You shouldn’t be trying to gain weight or lose weight,” Hall said.

Data is still being collected from the participants and results are expected later this year.

“One study is not going to answer all the questions we need to answer. We need a lot more research in this area to address not just the obesity question, but the variety of other conditions that diets and ultra-processed foods are linked with. So, this is just the first piece of the puzzle,” Hall said.

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