Processed Foods and Obesity: Emerging Science (Dr. Deirdre Tobias)

Get Real Health with Dr. Chana Davis

Dr. Deirdre Tobias joins us to talk about the relationship between diet, obesity, and health, with a focus on the role of processed foods.

Dr. Tobias is an epidemiologist who specializes in nutrition, obesity, and methods. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

This episode explores the following questions:
- What are (ultra) processed foods?
- What do we know about the link between food processing and obesity and related diseases? What do we not yet understand?
- What are the limitations of the "whole is good and processed is bad" food rule?
- How can we translate nutrition science into actionable advice for the public?
Drs. Tobias and Davis also share practical tips for how they shop and prepare foods for their families in a way that leverages the advantages of processed foods while ensuring high nutritional value.

More from Dr. Deirdre Tobias at Harvard and on Twitter.
Resources

The Harvard Nutrition Source https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/

Studies

Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33027677/

Eliminate or reformulate ultra-processed foods? Biological mechanisms matter
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34699743/

The energy balance model of obesity: beyond calories in, calories out
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35134825/

Ultra-processed food consumption and excess weight among US adults
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29729673/