But experts have revealed how eating a diet <\/a>dense in one type of food can encourage people to fill up on more fruit and vegetables, and fewer higher-energy options.<\/p>\n A new study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Tuesday shows participants who ate an unprocessed diet <\/a>naturally choose to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables than higher-calorie wholefood<\/a> options \u2013 like rice, meat and butter \u2013 which could help with losing weight.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Researchers said the body has its own \u2018nutritional intelligence\u2019 that favours foods rich in micronutrients (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n The data showed people on an unprocessed diet could eat over 50 per cent more food by mass – but consume on 330 calories fewer per day on average than those on an ultra-processed diet.<\/p>\n \u201cThe argument we are drawn to higher-calorie foods has been around a long time,\u201d study author Professor Jeff Brunstrom told The Independent. \u201cThat could be thought of as a form of nutritional intelligence. But we would argue we show other forms of nutritional intelligence – we don\u2019t just eat for calories, and this paper argues that micronutrients play a role as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers reanalysed data from a 2019 study which first exposed how eating a diet rich in ultra-processed foods can lead to excessive calorie intake and weight gain.<\/p>\n They found people who eat a diet of exclusively wholefoods consistently chose to eat fruits and vegetables over more calorie-dense options like pasta and cream. <\/p>\n Scientists suggested this was because our bodies have an in-built \u201cnutritional intelligence\u201d that encourages us to pick foods rich in micronutrients.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we\u2019re eating a wholesome, unprocessed diet, in a sense we are serving two systems,\u201d Prof Brunstrom explained to The Independent. \u201cWe\u2019re eating for calories, but we\u2019re possibly also drawn to high-micronutrient foods.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Ultra-processed foods have been linked to poor health, including an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, cancer and early death (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n He added that while you may need to eat a calorific portion of processed foods in order to meet certain micronutrient requirements, in a more natural diet there is a \u201ctension\u201d between macronutrients and calories that puts a \u201cbrake\u201d on how many calories we consume.<\/p>\n For example, while those on the ultra-processed diet got most of their vitamin A from French toast sticks and pancakes, those on the unprocessed diet got the vitamin from spinach and carrots.<\/p>\n \u201cThe paper is trying to put on the table this hypothesis that there is something special about unprocessed diets that allows us to eat more food by mass, but fewer calories because of that tension,\u201d Prof Brunstrom said.<\/p>\n \u201cOvereating is not necessarily the core problem. Indeed, our research clearly demonstrated consumers on a wholefood diet actually ate far more than those on a processed food one. <\/p>\n \u201cBut the nutritional make-up of food is influencing choices and it seems that UPFs are nudging people towards higher-calorie options, which even in much lower quantities are likely to result in excess energy intake and in turn fuel obesity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[103,61,60,446],"class_list":{"0":"post-253527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Researchers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iStock-1644746219.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ultra-processed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/18215426-1d99d18b-060e-4166-9383-284e4abfc296.jpg\")
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