When choosing a food, most of us look only at its calorie, protein and fat content, but a new study reveals that these figures do not tell the whole story, because the body responds differently to processed food and natural food.
Researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech, in a study published in the journal Nature Metabolism, studied 57 healthy-weight adults as participants. Each participant ate two meals on two separate days, each of which contained 300 calories and were very similar in terms of the amounts of fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber and sodium.
The researchers observed that after eating processed food, the body had a higher insulin response and expended more energy, while relying less on carbohydrates to obtain energy compared with the unprocessed meal.
In another part of the study, brain scans were performed on 52 participants. The researchers found a connection between the metabolic response and the areas of the brain responsible for desire and reward, demonstrating that the way food is prepared affects how the brain evaluates food.
The researchers emphasize that the message of the study is not that counting calories is useless; rather, the point is that counting calories alone does not guarantee that the body will respond in the same way. The way food is prepared and its composition have a deeper effect on metabolism.
In conclusion, the researchers advise that occasionally consuming sugar or processed foods should not be considered a failure, but that the important thing is to focus generally on the type of food and reducing harmful types.
