Dr Amir Khan

It does.

There's no doubt about it.

So when you're focusing on gut health, you're eating these whole foods, right?

And you're eating a lot of plants with fibre in.

Fibre keeps you full for longer.

So technically, you shouldn't be eating as many calories if you're eating whole foods.

And you'll find that, you know, if you're eating a banana or an apple, it takes time to eat a whole banana and a whole apple.

It's different to juicing it and stuff, isn't it?

You're chewing it, you're taking your time and it fills you up.

The fibre fills you up.

So overall, you shouldn't eat as many calories.

If you're not eating whole foods and you go straight to that ultra processed stuff, that stuff is designed to be eaten quickly and make you want more of it.

It doesn't trigger your fullness hormones in your brain.

So you eat more calories overall and then you start putting on weight because you're eating things that are full of sugar, calories, fat.

So people often refer to it as empty calories.

I'm eating empty calories.

The idea behind that is these ultra-processed foods have been designed to... They're not particularly hard.

You don't have to chew them for very long.

When you swallow them, they move really quickly through your gut.

So it doesn't stay in your stomach to get broken down all that quickly.