The Problem Isn’t “Junk” Food

Enter palatability and so many more things.

A few slices can add up fast and who can blame you?

Pizza is so good.

Check out this study held by the researchers at University of Bath who instructed young men to eat Domino’s pizza until “comfortably full,” which resulted with the participants consuming an average of nearly 1,600 calories each.

Wait there’s more. When the same group was told to indulge until they “couldn’t eat another bite,” they nearly doubled that amount — consuming 3,100 calories.

How does “comfortably full” and “couldn’t eat another bite” differ from each other? It’s the palatability of ultra-processed foods. It’s way easier to overeat ultra-processed foods like pizza than most people think.

That’s because these foods are loaded with calories, taste delicious, and aren’t particularly filling.

So if you’re going simply by how you feel — and not aware of calories per portion — you may eat way more than you wanted to.

These calorie-dense foods are usually the tastiest because they have more saturated fats, salt, and carbs.

So does this mean you should just completely cut out these heavenly, tasty foods?

Not so fast.

Is there such a thing as “bad” foods?

If there was such a thing where that one food is inherently bad for you, for example-one slice of pizza will have more of an impact than an overall healthy diet-then yes, we should probably stray away from those.

However, fortunately that’s not the case. You can have your pizza and eat it, too.

Take this study at Penn State University. Researchers asked 186 women — who they classified as “overweight” or “obesity” — to rank the “foods you can’t resist and find hard to stop eating.”

The following were the foods that ended up at the top of the participants’ lists:

1. Ice cream

2. Chips

3. Chocolate

4. Cookies

5. Pizza

The scientists then had participants follow a 12-month weight loss program, and monitored their strategies for managing these “bad” or “problem” foods.

The result: Overall, the total avoidance of problematic foods — usually what these “fad” diets or “quick-fix” weight loss plans have you do — wasn’t an effective strategy.

So what did help? Limiting the portion sizes of problem foods — instead of giving them up altogether — was strongly related to weight loss.

In fact, participants who used this strategy the most lost, on average, nearly double the weight as those who used it the least (15.8 pounds versus 8.3 pounds).

It was most likely due to their freedom of food choice and having no restrictions because the more restricted you are, the more you want it. So they had more control, rather than losing control and binging in the end.

Why would you choose to deprive yourself instead of including your favorite foods and still get healthy and lose weight? Yes, it is possible as you can see in this study.

To be sure, if some foods make you feel out of control, you may want to put some boundaries around them. That doesn’t mean you can never eat them.

If they’re not bad, then why reduce portions? Because as said before, they tend to be more calorie-dense and have fewer nutrients which will add up quickly due to their palatability or deliciousness. You’re human, you thought that pizza tasted good so you wanted more.

The strategy is to be more mindful of this, then reduce the portions, and add more nutritious food. You’re going to be intentional about how and when you eat them.

A coach can help you with this. Did you find this helpful? If you did, sign up for my newsletter or check out the nutrition services I provide as a nutrition coach. You can also download my FREE nutrition guide to learn more about what your calorie and macro intake should be according to your fat loss and exercise goals! I go over what to eat including what supplements to take.

References:

Hengist A, Edinburgh RM, Davies RG, Walhin J-P, Buniam J, James LJ, et al. Physiological responses to maximal eating in men. Br J Nutr. 2020 Aug 28;124(4):407–17.

Roe LS, Rolls BJ. Which strategies to manage problem foods were related to weight loss in a randomized clinical trial? Appetite. 2020 Aug 1;151:104687.