Research

Energy balance

High consumption of ultra-processed products (UPPs) displaces minimally processed foods and promotes obesity through energy density, hyper-palatability, and disruption of satiety mechanisms.

Shift your food environment away from ultra-processed products (UPPs) like snacks, sugary drinks, and frozen ready-meals. These items are engineered to be hyper-palatable and displace whole foods, leading to overconsumption. Focus on purchasing whole or minimally processed foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains) to leverage natural satiety mechanisms and reduce the risk of obesity.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
These factors also make ultra-processed products liable to harm endogenous satiety mechanisms and so promote energy overconsumption and thus obesity.
Carlos Augusto Monteiro et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2013

Why this rating

The paper is a review of ecological/time-trend data (sales/expenditure) rather than controlled trials, establishing strong correlation and plausibility but limited causal proof for individuals.

Source

Ultra‐processed products are becoming dominant in the global food system

Carlos Augusto Monteiro et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2013

DOI 10.1111/obr.12107

narrative_reviewCited 1,794×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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