Are you trying to lose weight by eating a healthy diet? Make sure it is minimally processed, according to a study that found that doing so may help maintain a healthy weight.

For the first time, University College London (UCL) researchers compared the nutritional value of minimally processed (MPF) and ultra-processed (UPF) diets.

Participants who ate minimally processed foods lost twice as much weight as those who ate ultra-processed foods, according to the findings, which were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

“We observed a significant decrease in weight on both diets, but the effect was nearly double on the minimally processed diet,” stated Dr. Samuel Dicken, the study’s first author from the UCL Centre for Obesity Research. “The trial’s primary outcome was to assess percentage changes in weight.”

55 adults were divided into two groups for the trial. One group began with an MPF diet consisting of homemade spaghetti Bolognese or overnight oats for eight weeks.

Following a four-week “washout” period in which they resumed their regular diet, participants transitioned to a UPF diet that included breakfast oat bars or prepared lasagne. The diets were finished in the opposite order by the other group. Fifty people in all finished at least one diet.

Both groups had weight loss after eight weeks on either diet, most likely as a result of the enhanced nutritional profile of their meals in comparison to their typical diet. On the other hand, the MPF diet experienced a greater drop (2.06 percent) than the UPF diet (1.05 percent).

According to the researchers, the MPF diet resulted in a healthier overall body composition since it reduced fat mass and total body water while leaving muscle and fat-free mass unchanged.

Additionally, there were noticeably bigger gains in both the quantity of cravings and the capacity to regulate them.

Participants reported two times better overall craving control, four times better savoury food craving control, and nearly twice as much improvement in resisting their most coveted meal while following the MPF diet as when following the UPF diet.

According to Professor Chris van Tulleken of the UCL Division of Infection and Immunity, the study “underlines the need to shift the policy focus away from individual responsibility and on to the environmental drivers of obesity, such as the influence of multinational food companies in shaping unhealthy food environments.“