What Are Ultra Processed Foods? Why Should I Eat Less of Them?

What Are Ultra Processed Foods?

Ultra Processed Foods have gone through multiple levels of processing and contain additives such as preservatives, sweeteners, sensory enhancers, colorants, flavors and processing aids. They contain ingredients that you would not find in your kitchen to cook with.

As a comparison – milk, flour, olive oil, canned or frozen produce, cured meats or fish, roasted nuts are all processed foods, but that is minimal compared to the number of processing / transformation steps in ultra processed food. In Ultra-Processed People, Chris Van Tulleken quoted a Brazilian scientist as saying “Most Ultra-Processed Food is not food. It’s an industrially produced edible substance.”

From that definition, you would expect that people avoid eating it. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Scientists formulate these foods to taste delicious. They work the combination of flavors and the balance of sugar, salt & fat to maximize palatability. Taste directs consumer buying as much as purchase price. As I mentioned in a prior blog post, these products are designed to be craved and the companies are trying to formulate trends (even if consumers like you and I are not asking for these foods)!

Why Do Ultra Processed Foods Require So Many Ingredients / Processing Steps?

Think about iconic and popular brands of soda, chips, cookies, ice cream that we ate as children and are still around now. To develop a blockbuster like those, the companies put a lot of development and testing into each product. Besides taste, they are also looking to make sure that:

the rest of the sensory experience meets the consumer expectations
the food label meets the requirements that the consumer wants (like low fat or low sugar)
the food ingredients are secured at the lowest price point possible and even have qualified back-ups to ensure supply
the manufacturing and packaging process is efficient
the food has a long shelf life and can handle a lot of shipping conditions

These factors are optimized to improve profits. They are critical inputs in identifying the final formula of ingredients (this is like a recipe you’d use at home).

The companies are always looking to make that extra penny. Even once an iconic blockbuster product is in the market, they are still making changes in the ingredient supply, formula, and factory that are as invisible as possible to the consumer’s experience of the product. The companies try to avoid situations noticeable to the consumer. A few cases that some of you may remember is when Campbell’s took the salt down too quickly or the introduction of New Coke. Both situations caused a lot of complaints.

Why Should I Minimize Ultra Processed Foods?

Most of the non-kitchen ingredients found in foods are novel to our bodies. One group is truly artificial chemicals that never existed before in the natural food supply. Another group is chemically synthesized to be the same as what is in a natural product that has not been a food – for example xylitol naturally occurs in birch trees, but commercially it is synthesized from GMO corn. Some ingredients are chemically synthesized to be the same as what is found in a natural food – for example citric acid is naturally in citrus fruit, but today it is commercially synthesized by a fungal fermentation process. Others are refined from a natural source and stripped down to a chemical constituent – for example table sugar from sugar beets is pure sucrose.

Some people respond negatively to these new ingredients pretty quickly. For example, I can tell within hours if I have eaten artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols or MSG. I get gastro-intestinal issues from sugar alcohols. Artificial sweeteners I feel light headed and jittery. MSG gives me symptoms like a hang-over.

Other people begin to feel off from UPF over long periods of consumption, as their digestion gets out of balance. The reasons are hard to pinpoint when it is this situation due to the number of factors. There could be a micro-biome change due to antibiotics that then changes physical ability to handle these or other factors.

Recent Research

Increasingly, studies are coming out about the risks associated with these ingredients and these take a long time to surface as public health concerns. Those who consume have higher rate of chronic metabolic diseases (obesity, diabetes, heart disease) or cancer. Ultra Processed Foods significantly raise risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Different ingredients have different concerns. Four of the top six killers in the US are related to an inadequate diet, There is not enough diversity of nutrients to keep the body operating correctly. Keep in mind, not every calorie is equal. Nor does every food have high nutrient density or quality. Here are a few of the key areas of research to be aware of:

Added Sugars

Added sugars (including any fructose sweeteners) are implicated not just in higher blood sugar / insulin sensitivity / pre-diabetes, it is addictive and inhibits mitochondrial function (lack of energy and lack of burning calories).

Seed Oils

When saturated fat was falsely being vilified (a topic for another day) vegetable and seed oils became a major part of the standard American diet, there is increasing evidence that omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are endocrine disruptors (hormonal imbalance) and mitochondrial dysfunction (lack of energy). Hydrogenated vegetable and seed oils create trans-fats which lead to cardiovascular disease.

Sugar Alcohols & Artificial Sweeteners

Sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners are being linked with disrupting the micro-biome which has a multitude of downstream effects.

Emulsifiers, Refined Fibers & Gums

Most Ultra Processed Foods had fiber removed to improve taste, shelf life & stability. Some foods may have had isolated refined fibers or gums added back in to improve fiber claims and to change texture of the product. Too little fiber in a diet can lead to leaky gut. Isolated and refined fiber or gums without the supporting phytonutrients & enzymes in natural foods that improve digestibility can cause gastrointestinal distress (gas, bloating, constipation).

Artificial Colors

Artificial food dyes have been associated with a range of issues from hyperactivity to cancer.

I can go on …. With as unique and bio individual that everyone is in their cells and microbiome, these ingredients impact people differently. If you are having symptoms and feeling off, experiment with eliminating some of these ingredients and build awareness of how these ingredients impact you.

There are better-for-you Ultra Processed Foods, but it requires reading the label and knowing how the different ingredients impact you. Companies can do more to add ingredients that improve nutrition and have less impact on metabolic health. The question is are they willing to make the investment for the long game? Are the companies willing to make changes to the iconic blockbuster brands? If these come to market, are consumers willing to buy them? As we've seen in the sales data, most consumers are not willing to make these “sometimes food,” instead of regularly consumed in their household.

If Most of These Ultra-Processed Foods or Ingredients Are So Bad, Why Are They Still on The Market?

The simple answer is that it is all about the revenue of the medical associations, pharmaceutical and agri-food industries. They are lobbying regulators and sponsoring scientific studies (with varying degrees of rigor) that support the position that they desire. There are some situations where data was intentionally suppressed because it did not align with what the medical associations and food industries wanted published. I’ll cover these more in future articles but if you want receipts now – look at history of Red Dye #3 / Erythrosine or Ancel Keys in Wikipedia for water-downed tales. (Personally, I think Keys was the Fauci of his generation!)

All these counter-research and lobbying efforts, make it harder for the consumer to understand what is going on and where the truth is. We’ve all seen it. One day X is bad for you and the next week another study comes out and X is now good for you!

Chemivore

These are the most commonly consumed items in the standard American diet – nearly 60% of what adults eat and nearly 70% of what kids eat. My husband jokingly called it a “Chemivore Diet.” That is probably an appropriate description. These are so prevalent because they are cheap & convenient. Think about the placement of sodas, sweets, snacks in stores, schools, hospitals, workplaces. In the grocery store notice what is at eye level to see which foods got the premium space. These are intentional to make it easier to access these foods (and build the profits of the mega food companies).

Prevailing Trends Related to Ultra Processed Foods

There is some indication that awareness is growing of the dangers and challenges with Ultra Processed Foods. Based on Ayana Bio survey of 2000 US consumers in 2023 & Mintel’s 2024 Global Food & Drinks Trend Report:

57% believe UPF are bad for their health
64% “healthier” foods defined as having more nutritional value, less fats / sugars / salts
74% were open to trying healthier UPF’s if they could support functional health (brain, immunity, sleep, energy, etc)
34% increasingly concerned about UPF’s – it’s a top concern aside from price & taste

Consumers have different views of UPF based on if it is a “sometimes food” and if it is a “regularly consumed food.” Is it enough of a change to get the mega food companies to respond to changes in consumer demand? We’ll see. For now, I continue to try to wake people up so that they can make choices for their health and the peace of mind supporting companies that they have aligned values with.

What Will You Do Going Forward?

While the scientists, doctors, lobbyists, regulators fight these out, what do you and your family want to do? Will you keep eating a Chemivore diet with more ultra processed food than home cooked meals / snacks with minimally processed ingredients or whole natural foods? Make no changes and roll the dice on the risks and what may happen in your body or with your loved ones? Or start cutting back on these chemical ingredients that have not historically been in our foods by looking back at what God has provided us through history as guidance of what is healthy?

Even small changes can make a difference.

Are there ultra processed foods that you and your family would be willing to consume less frequently? For example replacing multiple sodas a day with water or diluted juice to no more than one soda per day. Another example, changing snacks one or two days a week so that more natural whole foods are consumed instead of chips, sweets or cookies.
Are there ultra processed foods / drinks that you eat regularly that can find an alternate brand? For example find a different brand with fewer chemicals in it and more ingredients like you would find in a kitchen.