CNN
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When you open a bag of nacho-flavored chips or cheese puffs, you know you’re probably about to eat an unhealthy snack.
A gift from the dead? It’s a deliciously spicy, cheesy neon orange powder that coats every bite and sticks all over your fingers. The same goes for frozen pizza and chicken nuggets.
But what about granola bars? Applesauce pouch? String cheese? Flavorful yogurt? Snack foods eaten by millions of children and adults every day, these foods sure can’t be bad, right?
Well, it turns out that depending on the exact ingredients, many of them fall into the category of ultra-processed foods. This kind of food has been well studied recently, but the results are not very good.
Ultra-processed foods are a relatively new way of classifying foods. Proposed in 2009 The system, called NOVA, is based not on the type of food, but on how it is processed, such as meat, grains or vegetables, according to researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.
Nova Divide the food into 4 groupsstarting with the first category of whole foods and minimally processed foods, to the fourth category of ultra-processed foods using industrial formulations and manufacturing techniques.
“My actual definition of ultra-processed[food]is that it can’t be made in a home kitchen because there’s no machinery or ingredients,” food policy expert Dr. Marion Nestle told CNN medical correspondent Meg. . Tyrrell recently appeared on the podcast “Chasing Life.” Nestlé is Paulette Goddard Professor Emeritus of Nutrition, Food Research, and Public Health at New York University.
Hear more of the conversation between Nestlé and Tyrrell here.
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Ultra-processed foods contain additives such as flavor enhancers, colorants, and thickeners, and typically use ingredients that are not normally used in cooking. They keep well, are easy to prepare (just heat and eat), and are often hard to resist. (The food industry has opposed the NOVA system, citing a lack of scientific consensus on the definition of ultra-processed products.)
According to Nestlé, a confluence of historical, regulatory, and economic factors led food companies in the 1980s to “understand what taste, texture, and color combinations are most appealing to people. Put in a lot of effort and let them make a lot of money.”
Since then, tens of thousands of new products have hit store shelves. “Most of them fail, but the winning companies reap big profits,” Nestlé said.
Want to know more about what you’re eating before you reach for that can of soda, bag of chips, or frozen dinner? Here are 5 things you need to know about ultra-processed foods .
Eating lots of ultra-processed foods is not healthy.
“Currently, more than 1,500 observational studies have been conducted, all showing consistent findings: eating ultra-processed foods is linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and the risk of coronavirus. poor outcomes from infectious diseases, all-cause mortality,” Nestlé said. “Possible negative health problems associated with diet are particularly associated with ultra-processed foods.”
In the latest research, Published in BMJ Journal on Wednesdayanalyzed more than 30 years of data and found that eating ultra-processed foods increased the risk of death from all causes by 4%, including a 9% increase in the risk of death from neurodegeneration. Other studies have linked ultra-processed foods to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression.
Nestlé pointed out that these studies were observational and not designed to prove a causal link that ultra-processed foods caused these poor health outcomes.
“You can do that with controlled clinical trials,” she says. “And guess what? We have one.”
That one Randomized controlled clinical trial We showed that ultra-processed foods actually make people fat.
This type of research is not easy or cheap to conduct, so it is not done very often. To conduct the study, Dr. Kevin Hall, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, had 20 volunteers spend four weeks at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. I received it.
For two weeks, they ate a diet consisting of 80% healthy, ultra-processed foods (think yogurt and whole-wheat bread, not potato chips and soda). For the remaining two weeks, I ate a diet free of ultra-processed foods. Diets were matched, especially regarding calories, sugar, fat, fiber, and macronutrients. Participants did not know what exactly the study was measuring.
“We basically just asked people to eat as much or as little of whatever they wanted,” Hall told Tyrrell. “You shouldn’t try to change your weight, nor should you try to gain or lose weight. Eat at the same appetite level as usual.”
The researchers found that when participants ate an ultra-processed diet, they ate about 500 more calories per day than when they ate a minimally processed diet. This calorie difference is immediately reflected on the scale. Participants gained an average of 2 pounds over two weeks on the ultra-processed diet and lost 2 pounds on the minimally processed diet. And blood tests showed lower markers of inflammation when taking the latter.
“If you’re not familiar with nutrition research, you have no idea how important a finding this is,” said Nestlé, who was not involved in the study. “500 calories is amazing.”
Hall said it’s unclear what causes people to eat more calories when consuming ultra-processed foods. “One of the things we’re really interested in now is figuring out what the mechanism was,” he said.
Ultra-processed foods are everywhere, and most of us consume them without realizing it, even when we think we’re eating something relatively healthy, like baked potato chips or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. .
Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers found that ultra-processed foods More than half of American adults’ diet. For American children, That percentage is even higher67%.
Ultra-processed foods are cheap and convenient
Yes, that’s right. It costs more to eat truly “clean” food.
“It actually cost about 40% more to create a minimally processed menu than a super processed menu,” Hall says. “That doesn’t even take into account the time it takes to make the dish, right? So all of these factors probably play a big role in the food we choose to eat in the real world.”
Some ultra-processed foods, such as whole grain bread and yogurt, can provide important nutrients. Hall’s research also showed that some people do not increase their calorie intake.
“The snacks were neutral in terms of the number of calories (participants) consumed,” Hall said. “This shows that not all ultra-processed foods necessarily promote this effect.”
Hall’s team is conducting new research to determine which ultra-processed foods are harmful and which are harmless or even healthy.
Americans may soon receive more help sorting out the health effects of ultra-processed foods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are expected to issue new information soon. dietary guidelines, Updated every 5 years. Nestlé said the scientific advisory committee guiding the process was asked to consider the link between ultra-processed foods and poor health.
I hope these five things help you understand a little more about ultra-processed foods.listen to Click here for the full episode To find out how much ultra-processed food Hall is eating and what he’s feeding his children.
