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The HOLT Journal

Do ultra-processed foods make you eat more and gain weight? What three diet trials found

Ultra-processed food is blamed for a lot, but most of the evidence comes from surveys that link what people eat to how healthy they are. In 2019, Kevin Hall, then a researcher at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), ran a cleaner test: if two diets are matched for sugar, fat, salt and fiber, does the ultra-processed one still make people eat more?

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