Why Processed Foods Make You Gain Weight

Processed foods are a part of just about everyone's diet. But they can completely ruin your weight loss efforts and cause weight gain. In this article I'm going to explain how processed foods make you gain weight and what you can do about it.

What Are Processed Foods?

Processed foods are foods that have been taken from nature and modified before being sold to the consumer. Think of things like donuts, cookies, crackers, candy. But processed foods can also hide and pretend to be healthy foods. Foods such as whole wheat bread and granola are processed. It can be confusing to tell what is healthy and what isn't these days.

How Does Processed Food Make You Gain Weight

A new study found that processed foods promoted weight gain among participants. The weight gain was caused by overeating. It appears that when a person eats more processed foods, they feel hungrier and are more likely to eat more than they should, resulting in weight gain.

I believe this happens because of the insulin spike that processed foods cause. Spikes in insulin cause an increased appetite throughout the day. If you are constantly spiking your insulin, then it will subsequently crash. These foods contain simple sugars which are digested more quickly than unprocessed foods. Most Americans are insulin resistant which makes this problem so much worse.

Unprocessed food generally doesn't cause those cravings because there is lots of healthy fiber and the sugar it contains is more natural.

Are All Processed Foods Bad?

Earlier I mentioned that any food that is modified from it's natural form is a processed food. While that is true, this study wasn't so strict on it's definition.

These weren't just your run of the mill processed foods. This study involved "ultra processed" foods. What they defined as ultra processed were foods that contained ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and artificial flavors.

So this information does not apply to all processed foods; just foods that contain ingredients from that list.

How Can You Fix This?

After hearing this information, you may want to take a look at your diet and make some changes, especially if you have been having trouble with weight gain or are unable to lose weight.

Choosing Better Foods

You can start by eliminating foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, and emulsifiers. That's a decent start.

It is super hard to resist all those foods, and I understand that. There are some tricks you can do to help mitigate the effects of insulin resistance.

Intermittent Fasting

I talk about intermittent fasting quite a bit, because it really is the best weight loss method that I know of. It's better than any one diet when it comes to weight loss. A person can even eat a diet full of processed foods and still lose weight following this method, although I'm not encouraging anyone to have an unhealthy diet.

You can find out more about intermittent fasting and how to do it here.

Cinnamon

Adding cinnamon to your foods or using a cinnamon supplement is a great way to control blood sugar. If you have cinnamon with meals that contain processed foods, you will lower the blood sugar spike that typically follows a meal of that sort.

Apple Cider Vinegar

I have also mentioned apple cider vinegar before. It's one of the best natural remedies for increasing insulin sensitivity. I recommend make a drink out of it. Don't take apple cider vinegar by itself. It is damaging to tooth enamel. You can mix it in a drink with honey, lemon, and water.

I have a drink recipe for apple cider vinegar if you are interested.

Stay Active

Staying active can also help you combat insulin resistance. If you have a pedometer, make a personal goal to reach 10,000 steps per day. You can download a pedometer on your phone, and some phones come with them already installed. You can also buy an external pedometer that you clip onto your clothing.

A pedometer tracks how many steps you take. You can start it in the morning and track your steps for the whole day. Some will even tell you how many calories you have burned from your daily activity.

Organized exercise is another way of staying active. You should pick an activity that you love and do it 3 to 4 times per week. It could be taking the dog for a walk, or tennis, or yoga. You decide what you do. The whole point is to just have an active lifestyle instead of being sedentary.

So use these tips in case you still want to have some processed foods, but you also want to look good and lose weight.