Processed foods the cause of the rise in obesity

Over the past few decades the world has witnessed unrelenting increases in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. As many as 2 in 3 Australian’s battle to keep their weight in check. A surprising fact is that not a single country has managed to stop the rise in the prevalence of overweight and obesity.

In our research of 9.400 Australian adults, we learned that obesity is set to continue to rise for much of the population. At the heart of the problem is low protein, highly processed foods or ‘discretionary foods’. These include foods such as frozen ready meals, cakes, biscuits, commercial pizzas and burgers, sausages and other processed meats, ice creams, chocolates. soft drinks and other packaged and highly processed foods.

The protein leverage hypothesis first proposed by David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson, offers an explanation as to why these foods are contributing to rise in obesity. We eat to a protein target each day and because of this, when the proportion of protein in the diet decreases, we need to over consume carbohydrate and fats to reach our protein target for the day. Many of the foods available today in our supermarkets, restaurants and our pantry with highly processed foods that are dilute in protein making up but make up as much as 40% of our daily energy intakes.

In addition to manufactured foods being low in protein to be low in protein, climate change may be exacerbating the problem because the carbohydrate and sugar concentrations of fruits and grains are increasing relative to the amount of protein. Alcohol is one example of where this has been happening and the sugar concentration of grapes has been increasing, elevating the alcohol and therefore energy content per millimeter of wine.

While we can’t change our the global food environment, we can change our home food environments. The easiest way to do this is to stock your pantry with fresh, minimally processed ingredients such as fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meat, fish, seafood, nuts, legumes and high quality whole-grains and avoid ultra-processed products. If you are managing your weight it is advisable to avoid all foods high sugar, fat and excess alcohol.

The National Health and Medical Research Center recommends that Australians consume between 15-25% of their energy from protein to manage their energy intakes. An Accredited Practicing Dietitian can help achieve this.

References:

Grech A, Sui Z, Rangan A, Simpson SJ, Coogan SCP, Raubenheimer D. Macronutrient (im)balance drives energy intake in an obesogenic food environment: An ecological analysis. Obesity. 2022;30(11):2156-66. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.23578

Raubenheimer, D & Simpson, S. “Eat Like the Animals, What Nature Teaches Us about the Science of Healthy Eating” . HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd