By Kim Schewitz - Nutrition Researcher
- Ultra-processed foods tend to be energy-dense and soft, making them easy to overeat.
- Sam Dicken, a nutrition researcher, tries to avoid UPFs because he naturally has a big appetite.
- He shared how he avoids overeating without checking labels, such as by considering a food's texture.
Sam Dicken is a scientist who researches the potential harms of ultra-processed foods, like store-bought cookies and pizza. Despite what he knows, these kinds of food are often manufactured to be so easy to overeat that even he struggles to control himself around them.
"My appetite is huge," the researcher at the Centre for Obesity Research at UCL
in London told Business Insider. "I find it really easy to just keep on eating."
But Dicken has a few clever tricks to practice moderation when eating less nutritious foods, which go beyond simply trying to decipher from the label whether they're ultra-processed.
UPFs are made with ingredients you wouldn't find in a regular kitchen,
such as stabilizers and gums, and are highly marketed and shelf-stable.
Part of what makes them so easy to overeat is that this combination can make UPFs hyperpalatable — meaning they contain an appetizing combination of fat, salt, or sugar and are soft in texture, Dicken said.…
