Young people more vulnerable to ultra-processed foods, study finds

Teens may be uniquely vulnerable to ultra-processed foods and may be more likely to overeat when consuming a diet rich in these foods, according to a new study.

In Virginia Tech’s tightly controlled nutrition trial, 18- to 21-year-olds ate more at an unlimited breakfast and again when offered snacks, even if they weren’t hungry, after following a high-ultra-processed food (UPF) diet for two weeks, compared to their slightly older Gen Z peers.

Researchers enrolled 27 adults ages 18 to 25 in a crossover study comparing the two diets; one had 81% of calories from UPFs and the other had no UPFs. Each diet lasted two weeks; The meals were prepared in the laboratory and matched for calories and nutrients. After each phase, participants ate freely from a large buffet breakfast of approximately 1,800 calories and then took part in a snack test to gauge whether they would continue eating even if they were not hungry.

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Young adults ages 18 to 21 consume nearly 100 extra calories after an ultra-processed diet and are more likely to eat when they’re not hungry, according to findings published Nov. 19 in the journal Obesity.

Brenda Davy, a senior author of the paper and a professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Exercise, told Fox News Digital: “Teenagers ate about 90 more calories after the UPF diet, and if that occurs three times a day across three main meals, that’s about 270 extra calories a day.” “Over the course of a week, this could mean almost 2,000 extra calories per week.”

“This type of eating habit, that is, eating when not hungry, is linked to weight gain and increased risk of obesity,” Davy added.

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The researchers said this pattern could also occur in real life and have long-term effects. Dining halls, takeout and campus food courts are giving young people unlimited access to ultra-processed products, often served with sugary drinks and snacks.

The findings were not affected by participants’ gender or body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat.

Virginia Tech scientists Brenda Davy (left) and Alex DiFeliceantonio studied the impact of ultra-processed foods on young adults. (Clayton Metz for Virginia Tech)

“I thought BMI would be the important factor, but it was age,” said neuroscientist and co-author Alex DiFeliceantonio, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. “The younger you were when you participated in the study, the more food you ate after the UPF diet compared to the non-UPF diet,” he told Fox News Digital.

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The study, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, was small and short-lived, so the results can’t indicate long-term weight changes or real-world eating patterns. The experiment also measured behavior in a single buffet meal and short snack test; This does not fully reflect how people eat throughout the day or on a college campus with constant access to food. “Future studies are needed to determine whether this occurs over the course of a day or a week,” Davy said.

Larger, longer trials, including young teenagers and real-life food environments, could help uncover how UPFs affect appetite and the brain’s reward systems over time, the researchers say. “We need to understand what it is about ultra-processed foods that could have these effects,” DiFeliceantonio added.

College-age participants in the Virginia Tech experiment (not pictured) ate more calories after spending two weeks on a hyperprocessed diet. (iStock)

The researchers based their study on the NOVA classification system, which ranks foods according to how industrialized they are or how much they have been modified from their original form. Under this framework, UPFs include soft drinks, packaged snacks, flavored yoghurts, and frozen meals prepared with additives and ingredients not typically found in home cooking.

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But some experts are pushing back, saying the definition of UPFs is too broad.

“Health authorities around the world have rejected using the ‘ultra-processed food’ concept as the basis of public health policy, citing the lack of scientific consensus, its uncertainty and potential to cause confusion and risk of undermining established, evidence-based nutritional strategies,” the International Food and Beverage Association previously told Fox News Digital.

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Before founding ProCare Consultants and TeleHealth, he co-directed the National Obesity Programs for Children at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Evan Nadler said that although NOVA needed improvement, it was “the best we’ve got for now.”

The research raises concerns about how highly processed foods affect appetite and development in young people. (iStock)

Virginia Tech’s findings fit with what is already known about adolescent development, Nadler said. “Adolescents are already prone to making rash decisions, and eating UPFs may be one of them,” he said, adding, “I would speculate that young children may be more sensitive to the effects of UPFs.”

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Still, Nadler said: “This is great preliminary data for a larger study that I hope will include children under 18.”