Ultra-processed foods make up more than half
of the calories that Americans consume.
But they're actually quite dangerous for your health
and potentially highly addictive.
And I'm not just talking about donuts and pizza here.
There are actually a lot of ultra-processed foods
that we mistake for healthy ones.
I'm Mia de Graaf. I'm a health editor at Business Insider.
And I'm going to be showing you how
to tell what's an ultra-processed food from what isn't.
Processed food is something
that has been altered in some way
before it lands in your grocery cart.
So that's canned tomatoes or cheese or dried pasta.
Ultra-processed food is something
that looks very unlike anything you would have in
your kitchen at home.
It's had different ingredients added to it
to make it more shelf-stable.
So those might be preservatives or sugar.
It's also gone through different processes,
like hydrogenation, which also help it last longer.
That's things like soda or candy bars or chips.
So the problem
with ultra-processed foods on a nutritional level is
that the processes that they go through break down
what's known as the food matrix within the food.
So the nutrients that are in the original food have gone
through so many things that mean that they've deteriorated.
So if I'm at home, I slice up a potato, and I fry it
and turn it into chips,
the food matrix within that chip is going
to be far more intact than if I buy a packet of chips.
Those chips have gone through so many different processes
and have different chemicals
that make them more shelf-stable, make them last longer,
but as a result, they're lacking in the nutrients inside.
One of the biggest issues
with ultra-processed food is the lack of fiber.
When you have a good amount of fiber in your body,
your body naturally produces this hormone called GLP-1.
That is the hormone that weight-loss drugs
like Ozempic try to mimic.
They're literally called GLP-1 agonists.
So when you're eating a lot of ultra-processed foods,
and you are lacking in that fiber,
that's going to disrupt your body's natural cycle
of producing this hormone that keeps you fuller for longer
and makes you not want to snack as much.
That's why ultra-processed foods are linked with diabetes
and heart disease and obesity.
A study in 2019 by the National Institute of Health
provided a bit of a watershed moment in terms
of our understanding of ultra-processed foods.
So they had some people eating whole foods,
some people eating ultra-processed foods.
They matched it perfectly for carbohydrates, fiber, sugars,
everything, and you could eat as much as you wanted.
At the end of the study, they found
that the people on the ultra-processed food had eaten
500 calories more a day than the people eating whole foods.
That is, I cannot emphasize enough, a huge finding,
and it led the researchers to find
that ultra-processed foods do seem
to incentivize you to eat more.
Other studies have found
that ultra-processed foods may be linked
to anxiety and depression and sleep problems,
but the reality is you can't cut these foods out.
If you speak to nutritionist, they will tell you
that they eat ultra-processed foods, too.
They're unavoidable,
but the key is thinking about eating them in moderation.
So here are some foods that we often mistake for healthy,
but they're actually ultra-processed.
So let's start with juice.
It has vitamin C, antioxidants, polyphenols,
these things which are all good
for your heart and for your body.
But the problem with juice is that it is ultra-processed,
and it's really lacking in fiber.
Once you've juiced, say, an orange,
you're losing all of those fibrous materials
that would be fortifying your body,
and you're just extracting the sugars.
So you're getting a ton of glucose and a ton of sugar,
and then that can cause your blood sugar to spike.
If you're looking for a healthy alternative to juice,
fruit is really your best option.
That's where you're getting the original source
of nutrients.
But above all, just drink it in moderation.
Next is granola bars.
Granola bars are considered healthy,
because they're often made with oats and nuts
and dried fruit and seeds.
These are all things which are really good for your heart
and sometimes also good for your digestion.
The problem with granola bars is that they're often made
with a ton of sugar.
If you look on the back of a granola bar label,
very often they'll contain more than 15 grams of sugar.
That's 4 teaspoons.
So if you're going to eat a granola bar,
what I would recommend is to look on the label
and check that there is at least 3 grams of fiber,
at least 5 grams of protein,
and less than 10 grams of sugar.
Alternatively, you could eat a handful of nuts,
which is going to keep you fuller for longer
and give you a burst of energy,
or you could try and make your granola bars at home.
Another one is sports drinks like Gatorade.
The idea is that after a workout,
or if you're sick, you're just thirsty for whatever reason,
that you would drink, say, a Gatorade.
And it contains so many electrolytes
that it will replenish the sodium
and the water that you've lost.
The reason they're unfortunately not as healthy
as we think is that these drinks often contain more sugar,
other sweeteners, and food coloring than anything
else in the bottle.
It also contains dextrose, which is a sugar substitute
which is linked to increased risk of diabetes and obesity.
If you're not an athlete,
or if you're not dripping with sweat after your workout,
you probably don't need these drinks.
So drinking water
and eating a nutritious meal is going to get you
that same hydration.
Moving on, we have gluten-free foods.
The issue with gluten-free food is that, again,
these are highly-processed foods.
They often replace gluten
with starchy ingredients like tapioca starch and rice flour
and corn starch,
which can raise your blood sugar really fast.
If you don't have a gluten sensitivity
or you don't have celiac disease,
there is no reason for you to avoid gluten.
If you're going to buy gluten-free foods,
just look at the label,
and make a decision about how you want to consume it.
Look at how much sugar is in there, what kinds of sugar,
what kinds of starch,
and then make a decision about what else you're going to eat
with that gluten-free item.
That might help you to balance out the sugars
and those types of starch that are in that ingredient.
Cold cuts like deli meats are also ultra-processed.
Throw them in a sandwich.
That's a high dose of protein and zinc and iron,
but they are also very high in saturated fats and sodium.
In 2015, the WHO classified ultra-processed meat
as carcinogenic.
That includes cold cuts.
When you manufacture ultra-processed meat,
they inject a chemical called nitrites or nitrates,
to make it last longer and be more stable.
In your body, that converts into something called NOC,
and that can damage the DNA
and the cells in your bowel, which can increase your risk
of colorectal cancer.
So another food that's ultra-processed is
plant-based meat replacements.
One of the benefits is that they cut out a kind of chemical
that's naturally occurring in something like red meat
called heme, which can increase your risk
of cardiovascular disease.
Just because something is plant-based,
it can still be unhealthy.
Sugar, for example, is plant-based.
The other thing is that with a lot of these foods,
they inject a lot of sodium to replicate the flavor.
So often, they're very high in salt.
So here's how to decide whether you should buy an
ultra-processed food or not.
Read the label.
Something that nutrition experts do is
they follow the 5-20 rule.
So that's less than 5% of a bad thing,
more than 20% of a good thing.
You're looking for more fiber, less sodium,
less added sugars.
Try to look at if there are chemicals
that you don't recognize, and be wary of buzzwords.
For example, something that says it's made with real fruit
or made with real vegetables,
it might be majority sugars, but with a dusting of fruit
or vegetable on top.
Also, there is a difference
between certified naturally grown,
which is a regulated term,
and naturally grown.
If something says it's naturally grown,
that doesn't mean anything.
The term organic.
There are many benefits to organic foods,
but just because something's organic
doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy.
Organic sugar in a candy bar doesn't make
that candy bar healthy.
And then lastly,
just because something's natural,
that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
The terms natural and healthy, they are not regulated.
These buzzwords are carefully designed.
They're part of a big marketing strategy for food companies.
Food companies spend on average $7.5 billion a year
advertising their products in the US.
That's $440 million every single month.
To put that in context,
that is like making "Avatar: The Way of Water,"
which is the highest-budget movie ever made, once a month
every month for the whole year.
So why are companies ultra-processing products?
First of all, it's cheaper.
You could replace butter with something like palm oil,
sugar with something like corn syrup.
The other reason is that government interventions have made
it really easy to make ultra-processed foods
and a little harder to scale up
if you're a small business or a farm.
The government subsidizes corporations
that produce ultra-processed food,
while private farms have to be privately run.
There might be a change coming in terms
of how we're eating ultra-processed foods in the US.
In 2025, the US government will be issuing
new dietary guidance.
They do this every five years.
And ahead of that, they're conducting a pretty wide-ranging
study right now looking at the chemicals used in
ultra-processed foods.
Big companies are watching this study,
and they're pretty nervous about it.
Depending on the findings, it may impact
what Americans are told to eat.
If Americans swapped one ultra-processed food item
from their meals every single day,
food companies' profits would drop by about 7% on average,
which is really significant.
If we just carried on doing that
and started eating like Mediterraneans all the time,
these food companies would probably fold.