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Snack foods on a kitchen bench. Fruit sticks, chips and museli bars. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Why is it so hard to stop eating ultraprocessed foods once you've started?
A team of US researchers are trying to find out.
They've already found that weight gain from so-called unhealthy diets is less about the ingredients and more about the amount they've been processed.
A 2019 study found people eating processed foods were more likely to eat more.
Now the study is being repeated, and nutrition & metabolism scientist Kevin Hall is using it to work out what it is about those foods that makes people over-eat.