Watch What You Put in Your Mouth

Ultra-processed foods may be wreaking havoc on your body.

Photo by Caroline Roose on Unsplash

The subject of ultra-processed foods first caught my attention when I was talking to Emily and Mitchell Clionsky about preventing dementia. After debunking most so-called dementia-prevention diets as bunk, they noted the compelling evidence linking dementia to a diet heavy in ultra-processed food.

At the time, I had no idea what ultra-processed food was, or how it differed from processed food. After doing research, I now know just enough to be dangerous.

The term “ultra-processed” was coined by Brazilian nutrition researcher Carlos Monteiro, who was alarmed to observe that Brazil’s adult obesity rate had increased from 4% to 26% since 1975. As an alternative to food classifications that looked only at nutrients, he developed the NOVA system to classify foods based on how little or how much had been done to them. The four NOVA categories are unprocessed or minimally processed food (an apple), processed culinary ingredients such as oil, butter, or spices (apple baked at home), processed food (bottled applesauce), and ultra-processed foods (Apple Jacks cereal).

Packed With Tasty Additives

Ultra-processed food, in brief, is a manufactured product that takes food as a raw ingredient, refines it, pounds it, heats it, melts it, shapes it, extrudes it, and packs it with additives to make it tasty, shelf-stable, and convenient to buy and eat. For the average American adult, ultra-processed food is 60% of our diet; for teens and children, it’s nearly 70%. That should not come as a surprise, as these manufactured food-like treats are designed to be irresistible to the taste buds. “Bet you can’t eat just one” is more than an advertising slogan; it’s the intent.

And this might be acceptable, even with all the extra salt, sugar, and fat that we’ve known about for years, if that were the extent of it. It’s not. Research scientists increasingly believe that the manufacturing process itself, and the non-nutritional chemical compounds added to the products, alter the way our bodies digest these manufactured foods in ways that are unhealthy.

Studies have found that commonly used emulsifiers – which help foods retain stability and consistency – cause mice to gain weight, develop inflammation, and suffer metabolic disorders. Why that happens is not clear, but scientists suspect the manufacturing process breaks down cell walls within the food, breaking the links between nutrients and creating new links our bodies may not recognize. Because the  manufactured foods are easily absorbed in the digestive tract (some scientists even call the products “pre-chewed”), one result is spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels.

Fiber is another casualty of the food manufacturing process. Fiber plays a vital role in delaying the return of hunger after you eat, it reduces blood sugar spikes, and it nourishes the gut microbes that serve other healthy functions. Without fiber, manufactured foods do little to satisfy hunger and can lead people to overeat in an attempt to fill up.

What all this means to you, health-wise, is this: the more ultra-processed food you consume, the greater your risk of obesity, hypertension, breast and colorectal cancer, and as noted earlier, dementia.

Proof of Cause and Effect

The food industry, not surprisingly, does not agree with these conclusions. It views ultra-processed foods as affordable, long-lasting, and nutrient-enriched. Rick Mattes, a nutrition scientist at Purdue University who works closely with the food industry, says it would be a mistake to tell consumers to avoid all ultra-processed foods, since that would exclude many packaged foods that are fortified with vitamins and minerals. Moreover, he says the studies linking ultra-processed food consumption to poor health do not prove cause and effect, as they are not controlled studies, and they do not identify how manufactured foods cause the harmful effects for which they are accused.

There is one controlled study, however, that bears noting. Kevin D. Hall, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health, was skeptical that ultra-processed foods were harmful. To test the theory, in 2019 he and his colleagues recruited 20 weight-stable adults. For two weeks the participants ate only ultra-processed foods; for the next two weeks, they ate only whole, unprocessed foods. The results were clear: Participants lost an average of two pounds eating the whole foods and gained an average of two pounds on the ultra-processed food diet.

The surest way to avoid ultra-processed foods is to cook at home, using fresh (or canned or frozen) ingredients. The next best way is to read the ingredient labels on packaged foods. Processed foods usually have a handful of ingredients. If the label lists a dozen or more ingredients, and a majority of them are chemical compounds you’ve never heard of, that food is ultra-processed.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to avoid ultra-processed foods completely. But to minimize your risk of dementia, irritable bowel, Type 2 diabetes, weight gain, and a slew of other undesirable conditions, making ultra-processed foods a smaller portion of your diet would be a prudent step.