A British doctor decided to radically change his diet and eat mostly junk food for a whole month to observe the effects of the diet on his body.
For four weeks, Dr. Chris van Tulleken, an infectious disease physician in the hospital system at University College London, raised the proportion of ultra-processed food in his diet from 20% to 80%. Among the foods consumed were, among other things, frozen pizzas and lasagna, morning cereals, industrialized desserts.
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As the name suggests, ultra-processed foods are foods that undergo intense industrial processing and to which numerous chemicals are added, such as emulsifiers, flavorings, and colors.
In the video diary of the experiment, the 42-year-old man reports feeling constantly hungry, to the point of having difficulty getting a good night’s sleep due to the desire to eat more.
He also says that he has waked up with a hangover-like sensation due to excessive consumption of salt and sugar. In addition, he shares that he has started to suffer from constipation.
“I’m not enjoying it, but I can’t stop,” Tulleken shares in the video.
Before and after 30 days of dietary changes, Tulleken saw a doctor and had numerous exams. The results were more surprising than the doctor had anticipated. He gained 6.5 kilograms, three of them from pure body fat, and his body mass index (BMI) increased two points.
The diet, adopted by 20% of Britons, according to Tulleken, also caused alarming changes in their brain.
An MRI scan showed that his poor diet created new connections between the brain’s reward centers with areas that drive repetitive automatic behavior.
“So, eating ultra-processed food has become something my brain simply tells me to do without even me wanting it. Shockingly, this is something you might see in a person with addiction,” Tulleken shared in the video.
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Image Credit: Shot from video