Category Archives: Processed Edibles

Ultraprocessing Hits the Popular Press

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I am thrilled to report that the discussion about ultraprocessed items has finally reached the popular press in a big way. This past week Jancee Dunn, a wellness columnist for the New York Times, wrote a week-long series about different aspects of ultra processing, beginning with her love of sprinkle-covered sheet cake. Then Reuters covered California governor Gavin Newsom’s recent executive order focusing on reducing consumption of packaged snacks and sugar-containing beverages, and investigating the effects of synthetic food dyes. This order cited a 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report showing that 73% of American adults aged 20 or older are overweight and/or obese, and 38% of children and youth aged 12-19 are pre-diabetic. 

These numbers have been breaking my heart for a long time, and so I am glad that they are finally being shared more broadly. 

Jancee Dunn defines ultraprocessed items as those which cannot be made in a home kitchen, whether due to a requirement for ingredients or machinery that are not normally found in the home kitchen. I have written about various definitions for ultra processed items, including this one, on many previous occasions.   

If your ancestors would not recognize a particular item as food (e.g., artificial sweetener), it probably isn’t. If your ancestors didn’t eat it, it is unlikely to be food (e.g., maltodextrin). If the edibles industry has to tell you what time to eat it or how to use it (e.g., breakfast syrup), it probably isn’t food.

Ms. Dunn reports that “these kinds of foods” have become ubiquitous in the United States, and states that “experts say they appear to be taking a toll on our health.” I would take issue with both of these statements. Firstly, as my regular readers know well, I have recommended for some time now that reporters, writers, journalists, editors, cooks, and other food professionals stop calling them food. Food nourishes. And secondly, at this point the research has shown unequivocally that they are taking a serious toll on our health. 

She reports that the journal Nature Communications estimates that close to three-quarters of the food supply in the U.S. is ultraprocessed. One study showed that individuals whose diets consisted primarily of ultraprocessed items (i.e., most Americans) consumed 500 more calories daily than those who ate a more nourishing diet. And an extensive study that I reviewed in these pages in the past year showed that a diet high in ultraprocessed items showed a strong connection to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and mental illness. 

In response to these efforts, I decided to send a letter to the editor:

“Dear Jancee Dunn — I am so glad to see this conversation entering the popular press. Ultraprocessed items are not “kinds of food,” and they do not “appear to be taking a toll.” The research shows that they are in fact taking an enormous toll. I would urge you to consider not calling them food at all. Food nourishes; manufactured calories entertain. 

I agree that it is not necessary to remove them all from our diets all at once, especially if they currently take up a large percentage of the calories you eat on a daily basis. Small changes are best, probably because they are likely to be more sustainable. And failure is stressful, which may end up erasing any progress you’ve made. 

So entertainment is fine. It’s just not food.”

A Menace to Satiety

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A member of my family texted me a few weeks ago: “Thinking of you as I’m watching CNN report on the effects of ultra processed foods… Followed by an ad on controlling diabetes numbers. (Did they consult you?)”. She knows how long I’ve been thinking about this.

So I decided to write about ultra processed “items” this week. The media has got to stop calling them food.

An old friend once came to visit, and she told me that she’d been discussing my dietary recommendations with her clever boyfriend. He spent some time mulling them over, and then said: “Processed food is a menace to satiety.” Ha. Indeed it is. Continue reading →

Stripped Carbohydrates: A Primer

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Generally speaking, and with the exception of milk and honey, the carbohydrate in nature virtually always comes with fiber attached. Whether from orchards, meadows, gardens, or forests, and whether as roots, leaves, stems, or fruits, intact—or whole—carbohydrates belong to four major categories (fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains), all of which are rich in fiber as well as phytonutrients, the source of their often vibrant colors. Continue reading →

Nourishing Yourself With Joy

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Joy has been in the news lately, and that’s what I want to talk about today. 

Eating is meant to be a source of joy, as satisfying as the sunrise. Like listening to music. Talking with friends, or sitting together on a bench at the park. The wind at your back. Trading backrubs. Dancing. Stretching. A hot shower. A book that transports you to the other side of the universe. Walking along the shore. 

Eating is deeply satisfying. It speaks to your soul. Eating is sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, umami. Crunchy, soft, toothy, smooth, sticky. Beautiful, colorful, warm, cool, icy, bubbly. Expressive, imaginative. Fun, chaotic, quiet, or peaceful. Continue reading →

Food for Thought

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I once saw a post that said “Eat organic food, or, as your grandparents called it, food.” Only a century ago, nourishing food did not require prefixes like real, whole-grain, pastured, free-range, wild, or grass-fed. That’s what food was. What is happening to the food supply? As you have probably surmised by now, I spend lots of time thinking about the differences between real food and manufactured calories.

One strategy I use is to avoid products invented in the 20th century, like cottonseed oil, or high-fructose corn syrup. Also, I stay away from products that tell me when to use them, like breakfast cereals, lunch meats, and TV dinners. No one needs to tell you when to eat a banana, or scrambled eggs, or oatmeal, or guacamole, or chicken noodle soup. Continue reading →

An Oatmeal Hierarchy (with recipe)

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Like many other messages of its kind, Americans and other consumers of the standard Western diet have internalized the idea that oatmeal is “good for you.” Not all oatmeals are alike, however, and it is no surprise at all that the ultra processed items industry has identified a number of objectionable ways to influence the manufacture of oat-containing edibles. Today’s post provides more information on various kinds of oatmeal and related items available to consumers, beginning with instant oatmeal, the most highly processed product, and ending with steel-cut oats, the least processed form of oatmeal.  Continue reading →

Some Exciting New Developments

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A lot has been happening lately in the field of research into the the health effects of ultra-processed items, and that’s what I want to talk about today. Last month, the results of a huge study, involving almost 10,000,000 (ten million!) individuals, were published in the BMJ [British Medical Journal], “one of the world’s most influential and respected general medical journals,” and they were…shall we say…most informative.  Continue reading →

Disturbing News About Ultraprocessed Products

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My friend Nancy recently asked about a jar of “light mayo” whose first and third ingredients were water and “modified food starch,” respectively. She bought it because, in contrast to the 100 kcal found in conventional mayonnaise, it listed calories per serving at 35 kcal. I would say that it is an expensive way to buy water and flour. Currently, approximately two-thirds of the calories in the standard American diet derive from ultraprocessed items. I would like to discuss the many recent articles connecting illness and ultraprocessed products. Note that I don’t call them “food.”  Continue reading →

A Corn Continuum: From Real Food to Manufactured Calories

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Today I am talking about the difference between real food and manufactured calories. 

When you make a choice about what to eat, the question is this: Is this real food that nourishes, or is it manufactured calories, an invention of the 20th century? Some things in life are black and white, like a coin toss at the start of a football game. But it’s not always so simple. Between black and white may be found a spectrum of grays. That’s what I want to talk about today. Continue reading →

Four Old Friends Share a Treat

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Last weekend I met up with three friends in Philadelphia to enjoy a very long weekend together. Growing up together in the neighborhoods of Levittown, New York, we have been friends since fourth grade. Except for the pandemic, we get together once a year or more from the four different states in which we have made our adult lives. This time we picked a very old house near Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Built in the 1850s, the house’s kitchen was located underground (first floor), with four more floors above it. The entry and dining room were on the second floor (ground level), with a sitting room on the 5th floor, and bedrooms on floors 3 and 4. We quickly became nimble at navigating the extremely steep, winding staircase.

We cooked a lot of our own meals in the updated kitchen and spent at least as much time hanging out as walking through Center City, goggling at the displays in the Reading Terminal Market, admiring the public art — especially near the Art Museum and along the Ben Franklin Parkway, visiting the Liberty Bell, and seeing a play at Walnut Street Theatre, not to mention enjoying the excitement of the local win that sent the Eagles to the Super Bowl. 

I don’t have to tell you that the meals we prepared were nourishing and healthy, with loads of fresh fruit and vegetables, beans, whole grains, nourishing fats, and high-quality protein. Of course they were. And a few days into our visit, one of our happy crew happened to remark that the reduction in the amount of sugar she was eating appeared to have reduced some of the GI symptoms she’s had since forever. I don’t really know if she meant for me to hear, but I did. And I was absolutely not surprised. What passes for food in this country continues to stun me.  Continue reading →