What happened when the first randomized controlled trial matched ultra-processed foods for calorie, sugar, fat and fiber content?
In the United States, “junk food” is often used to describe less-healthy foods like candy, ice cream, and chips, but there is no consistent definition, so nutrition researchers came up with the concept ultra processed.
The term “ultra-processed food” – if you want to call it that –describes Industrial formulations that are commonly seen use long lists of ingredients that, in addition to salt, sugar, and fat, are not typically found in any cookbook, such as various flavors, sweeteners, colors, emulsifiers, and other additives. to copy To hide undesirable properties of the actual food item or final product. This roughly corresponds to the idea of “red light foods” in my traffic light system, in which, ideally, we should maximize green light foods, minimize yellow light foods, and avoid red light foods. In fact, what most people do eat Red light foods are: soda, ice cream, candy, cakes, most breads and breakfast cereals, TV dinner-type ready-to-heat products, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, sausages, burgers and hot dogs. there is Went Dramatic increase in ultra-processed foods. In fact, the US food supply is dominance By them. Over 200,000 products were evaluated, and 71% were classified as ultra-processed.
And, of course, they are not doing Only in grocery stores. Sugary drinks and processed junk are ubiquitous even in non-food retailers, sending widespread signals to consume products that are dense in calories but poor in nutrition. Former chief executive of Coca-Cola Keep This, the soda must be kept within “arm’s reach of desire”. a major candy brand Claim“We put them everywhere: grocery stores and supermarkets, gas stations and chiropractors’ offices, bowling alleys and the grocery stores we already mentioned. Not sorry.”
so this Is Where are we today? How much of the food eaten by American children and teens is classified as junk? Incredibly, 56% to 70% of what our children and teens eat throughout the day is junk food. But kids will be kids, right? In the United States, more than half the calories took There is junk across the board. In fact, around the world, ultra-processed foods are increasingly Account accounts for more than 50% of dietary calorie intake in high-income countries. No wonder unhealthy diet Are Humanity’s biggest killer, the leading risk factor for death globally, as you can see in my video below and at 2:25 Ultra-processed junk food tested.
What exactly are the health consequences? The biological impact of modern foods has been Study Using rats has shown that they suffer dramatic weight gain, inflammation, and cognitive and metabolic abnormalities. And just like ultra-processed foods Were Subsequently, binge eating was recognized as a new eating disorder, and it became the most common form of eating disorder. And not surprisingly, there were excessive meals. found Being 100% ultra-processed. It’s no surprise—these foods are engineered so you can’t eat just one. People do not consume much broccoli.
Nearly 9 out of 10 studies found Consumption of ultra-processed food was associated with adverse health outcomes – and not just obesity, but cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, frailty and all-cause mortality (ie living a shorter life). Asthma has also been included in this list in studies conducted on youth. report High DNA damage. not a single study informed A link between ultra-processed foods and profitable health outcomes.
In contrast, populations with low meat consumption, high fiber intake, and low intake of minimally processed foods to pass Enjoy far fewer chronic diseases, lower obesity rates, and live disease-free for longer periods of time. But most of the findings were based On observational studies. You won’t know for sure whether ultra-processed foods themselves are to blame until you try it.
In the first randomized controlled trial on ultra-processed foods, there were essentially 20 people Close in a hospital ward and received both ultra-processed and unprocessed diets for 14 days each. Here’s the kicker: The diets were designed to provide similar calories, sugar, fiber, fat, and macronutrients. Why? In response to criticism, manufacturers are now Proposal Reformulating your products, keeping them ultra-processed, but making changes to them by adding some fiber, for example, or reducing sugar, fat or salt. So, researchers Desired The study attempted to minimize the effects of ultra-processing by giving participants the same amounts of calories, sugar, fat, fiber, carbs, and protein in each of the two diets. So, for example, for breakfast on the ultra-processed weeks, participants would get Cheerios and a muffin, or an egg and cheese muffin with turkey bacon and orange juice. When it was time for a less processed breakfast, people would have oatmeal with blueberries and almonds. The overall sugar and fat content of the meals were similar, but the unprocessed option was presented more as a complete meal. For lunch, the ultra-processed group might get a turkey sandwich with nonfat Greek yogurt, canned peaches, baked potato chips and sugar-free Crystal Light lemonade, while those on the unprocessed diet might get a Southwest Entree Salad with black beans, carrots, corn, avocado and nuts along with grapes and apples. They were offered the same number of calories, with instructions to eat as much or as much as they wanted.
So what? On the ultra-processed diet, people ate about 500 more calories a day and, not surprisingly, gained about two pounds over the processed diet, or actively lost two pounds over the less-processed diet, as you can see below and at my 5:31. Video.
So, the problem was not Imbalanced nutrient profile of only ultra-processed foods. Simply making changes to them won’t magically make them healthier, but that’s what the industry wants to do. The improvement is referred to as an “unobtrusive strategy”, creating “the possibility of nutritional improvement without dietary changes”. But what study is this? showed It may be better to limit consumption of ultra-processed foods altogether.
Why does the industry do it? Love them so much? They are made from very cheap ingredients, such as taxpayer-subsidized corn syrup, which allow huge corporate profit margins. But at what cost? food industry takes More than a trillion dollars each year, yet the majority of our health care dollars go toward treating chronic diseases exacerbated by these foods, such as diabetes and heart disease. So, you could argue that “we lose three times what the food industry makes.” food industry logic These days, it’s “unrealistic” to tell people to avoid ultra-processed food, given lack of social time and the difficulties of meal preparation, but this may be accepting the same propaganda and disinformation campaigns that the processed food industry has used for decades to co-opt families. People who think healthy eating can’t be convenient have never met an apple.
He Was A response to Dr. Lustig’s essay on processed food as a failed experiment, in which she stated: “Today one-third of American mothers do not even know what real food is or how it is cooked; they and their children are destined to remain hostages of the processed food industry.” I don’t like to blame his mother, but I appreciate her prescription: “There is only one recourse—real food, low in sugar and high in fiber.” We have to start thinking outside the box.
doctor’s note
It’s no surprise that processed foods are wreaking havoc on our health. know about The role of processed foods in the obesity epidemic.. Is there any solution? Yes. Cut down on calorie-rich and processed foods.
This is the third video in the series on junk food. If you missed the first two, check out Do healthier fast food options lead to healthier choices? And How we won the battle to ban trans fats.
I mentioned my traffic light system for choosing healthy foods. Know all about it Eating by traffic lights: green is to go, red is to stop.
