Another report<\/a> released Thursday from researchers at Virginia Tech shows that young adults are more vulnerable to indulging in ultra-processed foods, according to Brenda Davy, a professor in the school\u2019s Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, who helped conduct the study.<\/p>\nDavy told WTOP that people need to pay attention to what they\u2019re buying to avoid ultra-processed food, which are dangerous to our health.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn ultra-processed food is most easily recognized by having ingredients that would not be used in home cooking,\u201d Davy said.<\/p>\n
Her study tested young adults who were put on diets with ultra-processed foods. After two weeks, the adults aged 18 to 21 ate more calories using a diet that was high in ultra-processed food even though they weren\u2019t hungry. But this wasn\u2019t true for adults in the 22-25 age group, Davy said.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s results suggest that adolescents may be more vulnerable to ultra-processed foods, which can be addictive.<\/p>\n
Some examples of ultra-processed foods include \u201cthings like Sunny Delight, rather than 100% fresh orange juice,\u201d she said. \u201cA Pop-Tart, which would be an ultra-processed food, compared to a homemade banana nut muffin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re shopping at the grocery store, if you pick up an item and look at the ingredient list, if you see things like \u2018fat, flour, oil, salt, sugar,\u2019 those are things that are typically used in home cooking,\u201d she said. \u201cThose would not be considered ultra-processed ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other hand, if you saw very long-sounding chemical names that you do not recognize, that\u2019s one tip off of an item considered an ultra-processed food,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
She said the research released this week shows that these ingredients could be more dangerous than you think.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltra-processed foods are linked to increased risks of obesity and weight gain and a whole host of chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases,\u201d Davy said.<\/p>\n
She said in order to avoid ultra-processed foods, people should \u201cprepare as many of their meals as possible at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat might help folks reduce their risk of some of these chronic diseases related to their diet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Davy said that there are some advantages to food processing by manufacturers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest advantages for using processed foods is that they do have a longer shelf life,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is an important benefit of ultra-processed foods.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she said that one of the big drawbacks is how addictive they can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may drive us to overeat them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a9 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A professor who helped conduct a new study showing harms from ultra-processed foods explains what they are and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":393687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3655,8164,210,186985,47691,16887,67,132,68,50946,36323,13585],"class_list":{"0":"post-393686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-diabetes","9":"tag-groceries","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-lancet","12":"tag-overeating","13":"tag-ultra-processed-foods","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-valerie-bonk","18":"tag-virginia-tech","19":"tag-weight-gain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115585497528032699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}