Article - Processed Foods and Protein Content

I found this short article very interesting.  In a nutshell, they say that our bodies are hard wired to devour certain amounts of protein, carbs, and other nutrients, and when we don't get enough of one macronutrient, we tend to eat more.  And processed foods these days are made to taste like protein but are actually high in carbs and fats.  To quote:

The obesity problem is best understood not as the result of the overconsumption of a single macronutrient, but from a skewing of the proportion of each macronutrient in our diet — notably the dwindling quantity of protein in processed food products. The paucity of protein relative to fats and carbohydrates in processed foods drives the overconsumption of total energy as our bodies seek to maintain a target level of protein intake.

An optimal diet includes a mixture of foods that provide dozens of different nutrients in appropriate amounts and in the right proportions. Consuming such a balanced diet is essential for the growth and maintenance of all organisms, and for reproductive fitness.

So it's no surprise that animals, including humans, have evolved exquisite appetite systems to control the consumption of proteins, carbohydrate and lipids, as well as micronutrients such as sodium and calcium1. These systems work independently to push the organism towards eating a well-proportioned diet: a lack of one nutrient will signal “eat more”, while an excess of another will signal “eat less”.

Full article can be found here.

Thank you.....kinda gives you an "aha" doesn't it?

It totally does - I always knew that processed food was bad, but this helps me to understand why, other than the chemicals and additives they use.