Yahoo News One food habit could reduce your risk of being overweight, says diet expert Dr Michael Mosley
A diet guru is urging people to take up one food habit to help reduce your risk of being overweight.
Dr Michael Mosley says that learning to cook your meals from scratch can have a major impact on your physical and mental health. The health expert, known for his 5:2 and Fast 800 diets, discussed the benefits of avoiding ultra-processed foods or takeaways in the latest episode of Just One Thing on BBC Sounds.
He noted a study published in the BMJ that showed how bad ultra-processed foods are for your body and weight. The study, which involved almost 10 million people, found that there was a clear link between a diet high in ultra processed foods and 32 health issues.
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Dr Mosley said: "A recent umbrella review published in the BMJ, involving nearly 10 million people found a clear link between diet high in unprocessed food and 32 harmful health effects including high risks of heart disease, cancer, type two diabetes, poor mental health and early death." This is why he is urging people to start cooking meals from scratch using whole foods such as legumes, wholegrains, fruits and vegetables.
The expert noted another study that found cooking from scratch had a big impact on your waistline, reports the Daily Record. Dr Mosley said: "A study of over 11,000 people found that those who eat home cooked meals more than five times a week were 28% less likely to be overweight than those who cook from scratch three times a week or less.
"Not only were their meals healthier, but researchers say home cooking also improved their eating behaviour. They snacked less, ate smaller portions and had more shared mealtimes."
Dr Emily Leeming, a nutrition scientist from King's College London, also discussed the damage that ultra processed foods have on our gut microbiome. Dr Leeming said: "Ultra processed foods tend to really be defined by three things. They tend to be packaged foods that you would find on the shelves in a supermarket, they tend to have a long lists of ingredients, and also they tend to have ingredients that we don't necessarily recognise in the kitchen such as emulsifiers and additives.
"So the difference between that and minimally processed foods are that there tend to be whole foods - things like fruits and vegetables, or yoghurt that hasn't necessarily had lots of things added to it. I think the key thing to remember about these ultra processed foods is that they're really made and engineered to taste delicious.
"And we know that the things that make food taste good - it's higher sugar and higher fat, and those aren't necessarily bad things in themselves, but they do tend to mean that it's much easier to for us to go over our energy needs and that's when it becomes a problem."
Dr Mosley also asked Dr Leeming how people can go about making a start on cooking from scratch, to which she said: "I think it's so important not to be too hard on yourself and just start small. So I think if you can find a recipe that works for you, it can just be something really simple it can have four ingredients. But if you're being able to do that, you know once a week, then that is something small and significant."
Check out more of this podcast on cooking from scratch on the BBC Sounds website here.
