The impact of ultra-processed food intake on neural, metabolic, and hormonal aspects of weight regulation.

As defined by the NOVA classification, ultra-processed foods are associated with an increased risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, cancer, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Ultra-processed foods tend to be poorly satiating and more hyperglycaemic than minimally-processed alternatives, and have been shown to cause energy overconsumption and weight gain compared with a minimally-processed diet. This has led to public health calls to limit or even omit ultra-processed food intake altogether from the human diet. However, mechanistic evidence to support a link between ultra-processed food intake and poor health is largely theoretical, and evidence from well-designed interventional studies are scarce.

Therefore, the aims of this PhD are to investigate the neural, metabolic and hormonal changes associated with a high-ultra-processed-food diet, compared with a low-ultra-processed-food diet.

The impact of consuming diets with varying amounts of ultra-processed food content on anthropometric, hormonal, metabolic and inflammatory indices, sleep, activity and brain connectivity will be investigated.

The findings from this PhD will provide important insights into how ultra-processed foods influence brain function, neural connectivity, metabolism and hormonal activity, and provide direct evidence on the health impact of reducing ultra-processed food intake.