Full Transcript Introduction to Ultra-Processed Foods 0:01 We have lots of choices to make about our diet and to that doing the right 0:06 thing when it comes to treating a chronic disease or fighting a virus or 0:10 losing weight and suddenly our nutrition choices can seem almost 0:15 overwhelming. Well, I'm here to help. Welcome to the 0:19 Nutrition Facts podcast. I'm your host Dr. Michael Greger. 0:23 Did you know that ultra-processed foods now supply more than half of daily 0:28 calories in the US? And studies have linked higher [snorts] intake of 0:32 obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and increased mortality 0:36 with increased intake. [music] And not just because of the nutritional makeup, 0:41 but in part due to food [music] additives. 0:46 So-called ultra-processed foods aren't really real food, but they really can 0:50 affect our health. Why do we need a new term though? Can we 0:54 just say we should stay away from junk food, defined as food and beverages with 0:58 high levels of concentrated calories and added saturated fats, sodium, and sugar? 1:03 I mean, that's where most of our sugar and about half of our calories, salt, 1:05 and saturated fat comes from. But ultra-processed is not synonymous with 1:10 junk. There are some junk foods that are not ultra-processed, and some
Why Ultra-Processed Foods Are More Than Junk Food 1:14 ultra-processed foods that don't fit the definition of junk. For example, while a 1:18 sausage is considered an ultra-processed meat, bacon is considered just a 1:23 processed meat. Though bacon would also meet junk food's definition of a calorie 1:28 concentrated food loaded with added salt. 1:31 What about an ultra-processed product like Diet Coke? It doesn't have any 1:35 calories, no sugar, no fat, not junk food, but still ultra-processed and not 1:40 necessarily good for you. So, there's a limitation to exclusively 1:44 focusing on the nutrient profile of ultra-processed foods, but how can they 1:49 be bad if they're fat-free, sugar-free, salt-free? Health risks are not only 1:54 related to the poor nutritional quality of ultra-processed foods, but also to 1:58 the presence of additives. No apparent calories, fat, salt, or 2:03 sugar, but contains caramel color, which results in the formation of 2:07 4-methylimidazole, which is a possible human carcinogen. 2:12 Contains aspartame, too, also recently classified as possibly cancer-causing in 2:17 humans. And Diet Coke contains phosphoric acid, 2:21 which is a phosphate additive that may be damaging to health. In fact, that's 2:25 just the kind of additive that could help explain the link between 2:28 ultra-processed foods and heart and kidney problems. Contains a benzoate 2:32 preservative, too. If you remove artificial colorings and benzoate 2:36 preservatives from the diets of preschoolers and then randomize the kids 2:40 to be slipped the placebo or a cocktail of colorings and benzoate, you'll see a 2:44 significant reduction in hyperactive behavior during the withdrawal phase, 2:49 and a significant increase in hyperactive behavior when the kids got
Additives, Safety, and Health Risks 2:52 the colorings and benzoate compared to placebo. Of course, it could have been 2:55 the colorings, not the benzoate, but that's one of the problems. As little as 2:59 we know about the effects of these individual additives, we know even less 3:03 about what combinations of them can do. There's a large body of evidence 3:07 suggesting toxicity from certain artificial food colors, benzoate 3:11 preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and emulsifiers, in part sometimes to 3:15 our gut microbiome. This may explain at least part of the 3:19 connection between inflammatory bowel disease and ultra-processed foods. 3:24 Now, industry apologists argue that the US Food and Drug Administration 3:28 carefully evaluates food additives to make sure they're safe. 3:32 Until they're not. In fact, to show the system works, they cite the removal of 3:37 six carcinogenic artificial flavors in 2018. Artificial flavors that had been 3:42 in the food supply approved for safety since 1964. 3:46 So, we were exposed more than 50 years before they were banned. Critics of the 3:50 ultra-processed food concept puzzle at the fact that natural yogurt is 3:54 considered minimally processed and yogurt with added sugar is considered a 3:58 processed food, but if the yogurt's sweetened with artificial sweetener and 4:02 contains less sugar, it's considered ultra-processed. 4:06 You can see how the critics try to stick with a nutrient paradigm of hey, less 4:10 sugar should be better. But that was before aspartame, sold as 4:14 NutraSweet, was officially recognized as a potential human carcinogen in 2023. 4:20 42 years earlier, when aspartame was first approved, the FDA's own public 4:25 board of inquiry opposed approval of the artificial sweetener based on brain 4:29 tumors in rats and the industry's own studies. This included several FDA 4:34 scientists who didn't think it was safe. The FDA commissioner rejected these 4:38 concerns and approved it anyway before leaving the agency to enjoy a $1,000 4:42 [clears throat] per day consultancy position with the 4:46 aspartame company's PR firm. And then the FDA actually prevented the 4:51 National Toxicology Program from doing further cancer testing. Meanwhile, 4:56 literally tens of millions of pounds made it into the food supply. Fine, 5:01 critics of the ultra-processed label say, if there are some additives that 5:04 are bad, let's find out exactly which ones they are and get rid of those. No 5:08 need to guilty until proven innocent broad brush all additives as potentially 5:13 harmful. Take artificial food colors though. What level of evidence do we 5:17 need to remove something whose sole reason of existence is to make some
Artificial Colors and the Red Dye No. 3 Ban 5:21 dayglow marshmallows in a kid's cereal that much more eye-catching? 5:26 I've long been concerned about red dye number three, why it hasn't been banned 5:30 from food for example, given the dye was banned more than 30 years ago from 5:35 inclusion in anything going on our skin due to cancer risk, 5:39 but it's okay to eat? Finally, just recently, the California Food Safety Act 5:44 was signed banning red dye number three from foods and drinks sold in California 5:48 as of 2027. Consumer groups like Center for Science 5:51 in the Public Interest continue to petition the FDA for a national ban to 5:55 prohibit use of this carcinogen and in 2025, the FDA finally agreed to ban it 6:01 from food, 35 years after they removed it from cosmetics. 6:06 It also starts to take effect in 2027. Until then, here's a pro tip suggestion 6:11 for food companies. Should you want to make your cherry popsicles red, maybe 6:16 try adding some cherries. If the harm of ultra-processed foods 6:21 lies in potentially harmful additives, why not just stick to so-called clean 6:26 label foods made with simple, recognizable ingredients, no matter how 6:30 the food is processed? But that's assuming additives are the 6:33 only reason ultra-processed foods may be unhealthy. In fact, harmful additives 6:37 are just one of many reasons ultra-processed foods may lead to 6:41 increased risk of death and disease. [music] I'll address some of these 6:44 others next. 6:48 One of the reasons the consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated 6:51 [music] with a higher risk of disease is food 6:54 additives like artificial colors and flavors, sweeteners, emulsifiers, and 6:58 more. But at least they're listed in the ingredients on the label, so you can 7:01 avoid them if you wanted to. Unlisted are some of the sneakier ways
Other Hidden Harms of Processing 7:06 ultra-processed foods can be bad for you, like contaminants formed during 7:10 industrial processing methods. For example, there's acrolein, a toxin found 7:15 in cigarette smoke, that's also generated during the cooking or frying 7:19 of food with fats or oils. So, it can be found in foods like potato chips, french 7:23 fries, donuts. Ironically, canola oil, considered to be perhaps the most 7:28 {quote} heart-healthy type of oil, appears to generate the highest amounts 7:32 of acrolein, and acrolein may cause cardiovascular disease and probably 7:36 causes cancer, too. In fairness, acrolein would still be a 7:40 problem even if you made french fries from scratch, which would be considered 7:45 a minimally processed food rather than ultra-processed frozen fries or fast 7:49 food fries, but if every time you wanted to have fries, you had to cut up 7:53 potatoes yourself and deep fry them, we'd probably eat a lot fewer fries. 7:57 Fried and pre-fried foods may also be contaminated with 3-MCPD, another 8:02 possible carcinogen. Furans and acrylamide are two other 8:07 heat-generated contaminants that are possibly or probably cancer-causing. 8:11 Trans fats are produced in the refining process to make vegetable oils, so they 8:16 may end up as high as half a percent trans fats. 8:20 In fairness, even unprocessed meat dairy products naturally have a lot more 8:25 without much difference between unprocessed and ultra-processed 8:28 products. Similarly problematic are dietary cholesterol oxidation products, 8:33 which are found in meat, eggs, and dairy. Once absorbed into the 8:37 circulation, they can contribute to the progression of several inflammatory 8:40 diseases. Cholesterol is bad enough. However, 8:43 oxidized cholesterol is even more toxic and disease-causing than cholesterol 8:47 itself. And it's also associated with the initiation and progression of major 8:51 chronic diseases, including atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's, 8:56 kidney failure, and diabetes. Food processing can dramatically trigger 9:01 the accumulation of cholesterol oxidation products in meats, including 9:05 fish and poultry, eggs, and dairy products. But that processing can just 9:09 mean cooking the meat. Cholesterol oxidation products arise during thermal
Contaminants, AGEs, and Molecular Damage 9:13 processing of foods of animal origin, with maximal cholesterol oxidation at 9:17 only 300° F or so. So, the difference between the levels in 9:22 ultra-processed products like pork sausage aren't that much different from 9:26 a minimally processed product like roast pork. 9:29 That's why the levels of oxysterols in foods, including oxidized phytosterols 9:33 in margarine, is split mainly between ultra-processed and minimally processed 9:38 foods. So, many of these contaminants are not exclusive to ultra-processed 9:42 foods. Advanced glycation end products are another good example. Increasing 9:48 evidence shows that the uptake of dietary AGEs, advanced glycation end 9:52 products, is closely related to the occurrence of many chronic diseases such 9:56 as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's. 10:00 In fact, it's hard to find an age-related disease that doesn't involve 10:03 AGEs. Dietary AGEs are abundant in highly 10:07 processed foods because thermal treatments are commonly used to improve 10:10 their flavor, texture, preservation, and safety. 10:13 But, thermal treatment just means heat. So, you can get AGEs from industrial 10:17 processing or home cooking. Canned corn has 20 units of AGEs per 10:23 serving. Corn chips 151, and corn pops cereal 373. 10:29 Rice has nine per serving, rice crackers 275, rice crispies 600. 10:36 A boiled potato has 17 AGE units per serving, potato chips 865, and fast food 10:42 fries more than 1,500, whereas homemade fries have less than half that. So, 10:47 ultra-processed plant foods can have nearly 100 times more AGE units than 10:52 minimally processed plant foods. But, animal foods start out with high 10:57 levels even when they're raw and unprocessed, and just go up from there. 11:01 Instead of 10 or 20 like the corn, rice, and potatoes, fish, poultry, and other 11:06 meats start out at around 500 AGE units or more, and then jump into the 11:11 thousands once cooked, which is considered minimally processed. 11:16 For meat that's processed or ultra-processed, they can exceed 10,000 11:21 per serving. Although these contaminants are by no 11:24 means limited to ultra-processed foods, you can see how considering how good or 11:28 bad foods are based only on their listed nutrients 11:31 fails to capture how food processing can transform food at the molecular level. 11:38 And it's clear that just using the clean label strategy of sticking to foods with 11:41 simple ingredient lists won't help because we're never going to see 11:46 acrolein or acrylamide on the label. It's the processing itself,
Closing Resources and Support 11:50 >> [music] >> whether traditional or industrial, 11:52 that's affecting the healthfulness of the food. 11:56 Visit nutritionfacts.org/audio to see all the podcast episodes with 12:00 descriptions that include links [music] to their associated videos. Sources 12:04 cited and other details are available on each video's page. Information about my 12:09 books, How Not to Die, How Not to Diet, and How Not to Age is all at 12:13 nutritionfacts.org/books [music] 12:16 including some of the newer titles including lowering LDL cholesterol 12:21 naturally with food. All proceeds from all book sales 12:27 that I get go to charity. And I've got a new book in the publication pipeline, 12:33 How Not to Hurt. It's going to be available on December 15th of this year, 12:37 2026. [music] And don't forget to sign up for our free 12:41 newsletter, nutritionfacts.org/subscribe, 12:44 [music] to stay updated on the latest bite-size 12:48 videos and articles. [music] Nutritionfacts.org is a science-based 12:51 nonprofit and everything on the website is free. There are no ads, no corporate 12:56 sponsorship, no kickbacks, strictly non-commercial, not [music] selling 12:59 anything. Just put it up as a public service, as a 13:02 labor of love, as a tribute to my grandmother whose own life was saved 13:06 [music] with evidence-based nutrition. Thanks for listening.
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