Non-PRO English Medical Medical (general) Medical translation

I have difficulty understanding this term in the context below. Help, please!

Context:
Not only is the soil devoid of natural minerals from which it grows nutrient lacking food, the food is laiden with pesticides, herbicides, genetically modificatied, and then they are cooked; completely destroying whatever nutrients might still be there.
The result is something that looks like food, it might smell like food, it might taste like food, but nutritionally speaking it is as nutritious as a sponge.
This is the reason so many people are overweight yet constantly hungry.
The body needs nutrients to survive, and since the food eaten has so little nutritional value, a person wants to eat more and more in hopes to fulfill the body’s needs.
The body is then forced to draw up its decreasing supply of nutrients and remains chronically hungry, even though the stomach is full.