Lately, they have dominated the news. RFK Jr. has targeted them as one of the primary causes of our current chronic illness epidemic, and I for one, believe this to be true. No matter what your beliefs are, it is impossible to deny the correlation between ultra-processed foods and the rising incidence of chronic diseases and conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and the list goes on…

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are foods that are made in factories using ingredients extracted from food or derived from modified starches or hydrogenated fats. They often contain many ingredients, including flavor enhancers, colors, and additives. 

Examples of UPFs 

• Breakfast cereals: Many breakfast cereals are UPFs, containing added sugar and refined grains

• Packaged snacks: Potato chips, crackers, and other packaged snacks that are sweet, salty, savory, or fatty

• Frozen desserts: Ice cream and other frozen desserts

• Carbonated drinks: Cola, soda, and other carbonated soft drinks

• Canned soups: Packaged, dehydrated, or canned soups

• Packaged meats: Packaged meats, fish, and vegetables

• Baked goods: Cakes, pastries, pizza, and other baked goods

• Reconstituted meats: Hot dogs, sausages, chicken nuggets, and processed ham

Ultra Processing Leads to Health Problems

The health risks of ultraprocessed foods are alarming. A comprehensive 19-year study revealed that individuals consuming the highest amounts of ultraprocessed foods faced a 31% higher mortality rate compared to those with the lowest consumption. Recent research has also linked these foods to a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.

The implications are deeply concerning given the widespread consumption of ultraprocessed foods. Recent data reveals that 57% of adults' caloric intake comes from these foods. Alarmingly, the situation is even worse for children, with 67% of their daily calories derived from ultraprocessed, nutrient-poor options.

These statistics help shed light on the unprecedented prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and the cascade of associated health issues. Ultraprocessed foods create the perfect storm for overconsumption and weight gain. They are meticulously engineered to maximize appeal, packed with calories, and devoid of fiber or other essential nutrients.

The problems are even more acute for individuals who are food insecure, as constraints of limited access and affordability of nutritious food lead to especially high consumption of ultraprocessed foods.

Ultra-Processed Food Raises Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

Read the Nutrition Label 

The food label tells the story. Ultraprocessed foods often feature lengthy ingredient lists, filled with items rarely found in home kitchens and more suited to a chemistry lab. Examples include many packaged snacks, breakfast cereals, ready-to-eat meals, and sugary drinks.

Looking at a nutrition label will give you an idea if a food is ultraprocessed If you don’t recognize many of the ingredients listed, that can be a sign that there was a lot of processing involved.

Calories are not all Created Equal

Ultraprocessed foods are often packed with added fats and sugars, making them significantly more calorie-dense than most whole foods. It's crucial to understand that not all calories are created equal. For example, the calories in a whole apple are vastly different from those in an apple fruit bar. While they may have a similar calorie count, ultraprocessed calories lack the same nutritional value and provide far less benefit to your body.

Tips to Start Eating Less Ultra-Processed Foods

You may ask the question, if ultra-processed foods are so bad for us why don’t we force the food industry to change these practices? Sounds logical doesn’t it? But the problem is that you are forgetting 50% of the equation…

The part you are not considering is the fact that, we as a species, LOVE these foods which we have become accustomed to. As I have said in the past, the food industry’s objective is to maximize profits, and minimize costs. At the same time they have done everything in their power to make their creations addictive, to the point where consumers no longer choose natural whole foods.

As a result, we cannot rely solely on legislation to drive changes in nutrition—it simply won't work. People love their burgers, pizza, and sugary soft drinks, and any attempt to restrict these favorites is likely to face significant public resistance. Consider this: as a parent, you’ve likely experienced the struggle of encouraging your children to eat what you know is good for them. Children lack the life experience to understand the importance of proper nutrition, focusing instead on taste and texture. Overcoming these preferences is no small feat and requires consistent effort, and patience to gradually break through their resistance.

This 5:04 video delves into the challenges of implementing forced legislative changes to ultraprocessed foods, as proposed by RFK Jr. and others with political influence over food policies. Beyond the difficulty of altering a nation’s deeply ingrained taste preferences, the video highlights additional hurdles, such as the cost implications and the increased time required for food preparation at home, in schools, and in daily life.

Reducing Ultra-Processed Foods in the US Will be a Challenge

Specific Diseases Caused by Eating Ultra-processed Foods

Studies show that eating more ultra-processed foods can increase your risk of: 

• Cardiovascular disease

•  High blood pressure

• Type 2 diabetes

•  Some types of cancer

• Obesity

• Depression

• Inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract

• Heart attacks and strokes

• Early death

To reduce the negative effects of ultra-processed foods, you can:

• Cook at home: Make your own meals instead of eating out or eating pre-packaged foods

• Choose whole foods: Eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes 

• Drink water: Replace sugary drinks with water 

• Read labels: Check food labels for added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat 

• Plan ahead: Prepare meals in advance and stock your kitchen with healthy snacks 

• Start slowly: Gradually replace processed foods with whole foods to avoid side effects like fatigue and irritability 

• Make substitutions: Use substitutes for highly processed snacks and foods 

• Choose healthier options: When eating out, choose healthier menu options 

Partial Solutions that may help to Reduce Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods:

• Start slowly. ...

• Substitute fresh fruit or vegetables for ultra-processed food.

• Drink more water than sugary beverages. (filtered or bottled)

•  Choose whole grains over processed grains.

• Make a homemade version of processed food, such as bread, kale chips, granola, or salad dressings.

NOTE: If you begin to migrate to progressively healthier whole foods, keep one thing in mind: even if a fruit or vegetable is marketed as “organic” or “natural”, do not assume that it is free from pesticides/herbicides such as glyphosate. Get in the habit of thoroughly washing and drying these foods before preparation. Danger is all around us, and we must be vigilant in protecting our lives and that of our children and family.

Unprocessed- how I gave up Processed Foods

Tools You Can Use

So how do you know what is good, and what is not when you shop? If you have a smartphone, here are two free apps you can dowmload from Google and Apple.

Get Yuka- Food and Cosmetic Scanner (Android)

Bobby Approved – Food Scanner (iPhone)

Simple Ways You Can Cut Down On Processed Foods

Regulate the Promotion of Ultra-Processed Foods

The biggest lever we need to use is USDA’s $120 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], which gives low-income families money to spend on groceries.

We could leverage it to increase healthy eating not just among SNAP participants but for all Americans, in the same way we leverage Medicare to improve our overall healthcare system. For example, grocery stores that participate in SNAP shouldn’t be allowed to promote unhealthy foods like sodas with prominent displays. If anyone doubts the marketplace power of SNAP, Walmart changed its business model to access SNAP funds. For years, it didn’t sell food, but in the 1980s, it recognized that its customers were coming in and out of its stores with billions of dollars in their pocket, their SNAP benefits, but couldn’t use them at Walmart. So, it started selling food and today it’s the nation’s largest grocer and recipient of SNAP funds.

Set strong dietary guidelines

The new administration will put out the next dietary guidelines. It’s important that they set a policy around ultra-processed food. If they remain silent, it’ll be another decade or two before our kids can benefit from needed policy changes.

The next secretaries of health and agriculture could say, ‘We don’t know why but ultra-processed food is making us sick.’ That’s all they need to take the next step and set some guardrails in the new guidelines.

What’s the evidence supporting those recommendations?

In 1990, the Centers for Disease Control published the first complete map of obesity rates in the country. Not a single state had an obesity rate as high as 15%. Today, almost every state is over 30%, with about half over 35%. Almost half of Americans have diabetes or prediabetes…

What happened in only 34 years? Our genes didn’t change.

One important piece of evidence comes from an NIH study. In 2018, scientists asked a group of adults to stay at the NIH Clinical Center for four weeks. Participants were randomly assigned to either an ultra-processed diet or an unprocessed diet for two weeks, followed by the alternate diet for two weeks. The meals had the same calories and macronutrients, including sugars, fats, sodium, carbohydrates etc., and participants could eat as little or as much as they wanted.

The researchers found that when the participants were on the ultra-processed diet, they ate on average an extra 500 calories a day, which is almost an additional meal a day, and gained an average of two pounds.

We still don’t know what it is about ultra-processed foods causes health issues. We have indications that it might be caloric density and their hyper-palatability.

These are foods that are being designed to make people addicted, much like the tobacco industry was doing with cigarettes. And certainly, the fact that many ultra-processed foods are also high in fat, sugar, or salt is particularly concerning.

We need more research, but I think the reason why ultra-processed foods are harmful is in the intersection between HFSS foods (foods that are high in fat, sugar, or salt) and ultra-processing. Those are the foods that responsible for the obesity epidemic, our shorter lifespans, and our kids being so sick. Those are the foods the government needs to regulate!

What can be done to address the ultra-processed food problem in the next four years?

The FDA and USDA don’t need additional statutory authority to start regulating. The law is very clear: It prohibits substances that may render a food injurious to health. These agencies have interpreted that to go after contaminants that cause acute illness, like food poisoning. They do that well. But they’re not looking at chronic illnesses caused by food, which is the number one preventable cause of death in our country.

We successfully dealt with tobacco as a public health problem and now we need to deal with the food our children are eating. That’s what administrations are for. They are supposed to solve big problems and have the resources to do so. And hopefully whoever gets elected will do just that.

While we are discussing our children, there is another very important issue that is affecting their current health, and one that may ultimately lower their life expectancy and make them more vulnerable to illness throughout their lives.

This is not about something they are eating, but rather something they are no longer eating that has already demonstrated a significant effect. Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a clue… It is something that every adult over the age of 65 had when they were children. I'm talking about whole milk!

Due in large part to our own government’s insistence that we reduce ALL fats in our diet. I'm talking about things like butter, milk, and cheese. As a result of the tremendous increase in coronary heart disease in the 1950s, the government became convinced that dietary fat from ALL sources should be minimized or eliminated. Ironically, this false belief resulted in the creation of some of the most dangerous foods the world has ever seen. Which did exactly the opposite of what they were intended to prevent…that have now been banned.

I am speaking about the process of hydrogenation, which was designed to turn polyunsaturated oils into saturated fatty acids that do not exist in nature, otherwise known as TRANS fats. Not only that, but seed oils, incorrectly labeled as vegetable oil, were heavily promoted, for cooking purposes. Today, although they are universally accepted as healthy, they are now recognized by science as some of the most unhealthy oils available due to the fact, that almost all of them undergo extensive processing using heat, and solvents, to correct for their undesirable characteristics and improve economy.

If you read my newsletter that contained information on "blue zones” where it is not unusual for people to live past 100 years of age, specifically Sardinia, you will notice one major food source that is lacking... One unique aspect of the Sardinian diet, is the high percentage of dairy in their diet especially butter and cheese. Recently researchers have reported that the Sardinian population has almost twice the level of the essential fatty acid, pentadecanoic acid, a.k.a C15 as other populations including the USA.

Today there is virtually no C15 in U.S. infant formulas, and very little from mother’s milk as a result of the assault on dairy fat. In case you were wondering: A deficiency in C15, an essential fatty acid, can lead to:

• Chronic fatigue

• Poor sleep

• Increased risk of anemia

• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

• Increased risk of type 2 diabetes

• Increased risk of cardiovascular disease

Listen to the Podcast

Until next time, take care and stay POSITIVE…Dr. G

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