Full Transcript Introduction to Ultra-Processed Foods 0:00 So why are ultra-processed foods considered harmful? 0:03 Again, I'm going to read a list here of some of the disease conditions that have been noted in a number of different studies, 0:11 both in the U.S. 0:12 and abroad, that people who eat more ultra processed foods are likely to experience, and that is oftentimes a 20 to 50 percent increased risk. 0:24 and that is overall inflammation, all-cause mortality, which is the chance that you will die over a specific time frame. 0:33 And that seems to be about 20% increased in people who eat a lot of ultra-processed foods. 0:40 It's about 10% increase per serving per day of ultraprocessed food. 0:47 Have you made it past menopause, or are you going through it now? 0:50 I'm Dr. 0:51 Pat McShane, and on the Women's HealthSpan Voices podcast, I'll guide you through the health challenges of the menoppausal years and beyond, 1:00 guiding the way to thriving in this powerful era of your womanhood. 1:05 Hello and welcome to Women's Health Fan Voices. 1:08 I'm Dr. 1:09 Pat McShane, and today I thought we would take a little bit of a hazardous journey, a deep dive into ultra-processed foods. 1:18 If you're at all like me, you are reading about these all the time and how harmful they may be, but there's a lot of controversy around this and a lots
Podcast Intro and Episode Overview 1:27 of problems defining what we mean by ultra processed foods in the first instance. 1:33 At the very least, ultra-processed foods compromise about 50% of our caloric intake. 1:41 And although addiction to ultra processed foods, which is a whole other subject on its own, is not as high in we older women, 1:50 there still are a sizable number of people who heavily depend upon ultra process foods or might even be considered addicted to them. 2:00 So this is a real issue, the way that we currently eat. 2:05 So let's start with some definitions, and there are several different ones, but I'm going to read a general description, 2:13 which is that Group 1 foods are those which are unprocessed or minimally processed, And those are naturally occurring foods without additives. 2:24 Group 2 foods have culinary ingredients added to them for processing such as salt, vegetable oil, sugar, or butter.
What Counts as Ultra-Processed Food 2:34 Group 3 are processed, which is additives meant to improve taste or shelf life, such a canned goods or cured meat. 2:45 And then group four are considered the ultra-processed, and those are industrially created foods that include ingredients you wouldn't find in a home kitchen, 2:56 such as frozen meals, packaged desserts, flavored yogurts, plant-based meat substitutes. 3:03 And what characterizes ultra-processed foods for the most part are a lot more sugar, fat, and salt than occur in natural or minimally processed foods. 3:18 These foods also typically contain artificial dyes, sweeteners, emulsifiers, and preservatives. 3:27 And then, of course, there are the chemicals that are included in the packaging, whether that's plastic or cans or styrofoam and so on. 3:36 So there's even less known about those things that we ingest when we eat processed foods. 3:45 So one analyst I read said if something has more than five ingredients in it, it's probably going to be considered ultra-processed. 3:55 And from an overall dietary perspective, the foods that are of the most concern are things like processed meats and sodas, 4:06 which are what we eat the more stuff that would be consider ultra processed. 4:12 Most of what I've been reading, probably you also, speaks in a negative fashion about ultra-processed foods, and I'll go through a lot of those foods are
How Ultra-Processed Foods Affect the Body 4:25 supposed to be doing bad to us, but let's move over for a second and talk about mechanisms. 4:31 And what it's thought that ultra processed foods can do includes this long list, which is it can raise certain fatty acids. 4:42 These foods can infiltrate our muscles with fat. 4:46 They can be endocrine disruptors, they are pro-inflammatory, and they alter our microbiomes, especially the preservatives and the additives. 4:59 Besides all of that, these foods are typically intended to be addictive because they are hyper palatable. 5:08 The serving sizes are large, if we're talking about foods in one serving size container. 5:16 They are, typically, a soft texture and eaten quickly, so you don't have a feeling of fullness after eating them. 5:25 And they are typically protein poor and fiber poor. 5:31 So again, we don't have a sense of satiation after eating them. 5:37 And besides all that, they're very ubiquitous. 5:40 They're are very easily found in a gas station and they typically cheaper. 5:46 There don' require refrigeration oftentimes, and there very handy for our lifestyle. 5:54 We've come to rely upon various indications from the FDA and so on about food safety, but this arena has been wholly neglected by both the U.S. 6:06 and European food labeling and food inspection services. 6:11 So why are ultra-processed foods considered harmful? 6:15 Again, I'm going to read a list here of some of the disease conditions that have been noted in a number of different studies,
Health Risks Linked to Ultra-Processed Foods 6:23 both in the U.S. 6:24 and abroad, that people who eat more ultra processed foods are likely to experience, and that is oftentimes a 20 to 50 percent increased risk. 6:35 and that is overall inflammation, all-cause mortality, which is the chance that you will die over a specific time frame. 6:45 And that seems to be about 20% increased in people who eat a lot of ultra-processed foods. 6:52 It's about 10% increase per serving per day of ultraprocessed food. 6:58 Cardiovascular mortality. 7:00 High blood pressure. 7:02 cancer noted in the UK Biobank, anxiety and depression, obesity, of course, diabetes, sleep disorders, and that blacks are especially high risk out of 7:18 the MESA study data. 7:21 I frequently like to quote Michael Pollan who said, eat food, not too much, mostly plants. 7:28 And again, the idea here is to prioritize whole and minimally processed foods and avoid processed meats and sugar sweetened beverages in particular. 7:40 Another way of thinking about this is to add protein and fiber to our diet, and often the ultra processed foods are not going to be particularly high in 7:52 either of these components. 7:53 Vitamins and colorful foods, as we've heard from many of our podcasters over the last year, One of the problems with our current system is that the nutritional 8:05 labeling mentions the ingredients that went into a food, and we don't really know very much about how processing changes that impact on our bodies. 8:16 So that's something that may say that it's, you know, all potatoes and a little bit of fat and pulverized to a pulp and then reconfigured in some fashion
Choosing Healthier Foods and Practical Takeaways 8:32 to form a potato chip-ish creation. 8:36 You know, do we know that the potatoes that went in there still have the same nutritional properties as the potatos that we might be eating on our plate 8:46 at dinner with just a little bit of butter on top of them? 8:49 So we don't really know a lot about that. 8:52 And we certainly know that things get differently altered in our system, in out gut, and impact our everything. 9:02 Our satiety, our endocrine function that our gut does, then our microbiome. 9:08 So hopefully we'll get more information about this over the next few years. 9:14 One piece of good news was recently presented at a nutrition meeting in July, and that looked at several studies analyzing about 200,000 people and what 9:27 they reported to be eating. 9:29 And they divided healthy and unhealthy foods, whether they be ultra-processed or not, Definition of healthy but ultra-processed might include something 9:42 like whole grain cereals or plant-based dairy substitutes. 9:47 And then the unhealthy ultra processed would be fast food, packaged snacks, and sodas. 9:55 and what they found was that people who ate the healthy side, whether they be unprocessed or ultra-process, tended to have less cardiovascular mortality, 10:08 diabetes, and all-cause mortality which as we just discussed is the risk of dying. 10:15 So that kind of helps us to avoid the most worrisome items and stay with the healthier items, even if we can't be home cooking nutritious food meals all 10:28 the time for ourselves and our families. 10:30 There are several levels on which things can be done about this. 10:34 Some of it is legislative, and I'm not going to go into that, but there is a movement to kind back out some of the tactics that have been used by the food industry. 10:46 to try to get us to eat more of this stuff. 10:49 Probably, for today anyway, the thing we can think about is what I just mentioned, which is, what we could personally do for ourselves and the people we 10:59 might be shopping and cooking for. 11:01 which is to, again, aim for protein and fiber, which most of we older women are deficient in, and try to stay away from things with a lot of salt, 11:13 fat and sugar in them. 11:16 So that's basic overall recommendation for my take on ultra-processed foods, which is a complicated subject. 11:25 It comes up all the time in my reading and probably yours. 11:29 And I hope this kind of information has been useful. 11:34 So if it has, please like and subscribe and tell your friends about this so we might get more information out there for women to have longer, 11:43 healthier lives. 11:45 Thanks so much. 11:46 Thanks for listening to the women's health span voices podcast. 11:51 If today's episode spoke to you, follow the show and share it with a friend ready to take charge of her health and please leave a review. 11:59 It helps more women find us.
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