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. Continue reading
Tag Archives: ultraprocessed
My Favorite Topic: Real Food
Almost all diets have one particular strategy in common, which is to increase the amount of real food that people are eating while simultaneously decreasing the amount of manufactured calories, including both stripped carbohydrates and the ultraprocessed oils invented in the 20th century.
Stripped carbohydrates are processed to remove the most nourishing parts, including the bran and germ. Other stripped carbohydrates include white rice, corn starch, corn syrup, and sugar. It is not a coincidence that white flour, corn starch and powdered sugar look exactly the same. We’ve removed the original identities of these products, so all that is left is a pile of white powder. Continue reading
Self Care is Being Kind to Yourself, plus Lentil-Vegetable Soup
I spent my days as a practicing physician teaching people to be kinder to themselves, and that kindness manifested itself in three spheres: 1) eating patterns, 2) activity patterns, and 3) rest & relaxation patterns. The goal is to make small, incremental changes that result in nourishing your heart and soul with better food, more movement, and quality rest and relaxation. Continue reading
Fake Fruit Names for Your Breakfast Cereal
A while back I wrote a post about the high profit-margin-to-cost of the breakfast cereal business. Today I have more to say on breakfast cereal, not about the manufacturing process or profit margins, but about the pervasive use of fruit-related words in the naming of these products.
If I had just ten seconds to share advice on improving your nutrition, I suspect you already know exactly what I would say: Eat more fruits and vegetables. And I don’t think that would surprise anyone. We all know that fruits and vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, and we also know that everyone should be eating more of them, especially since most of us don’t eat enough produce to begin with. Continue reading
Strategies for Improving Your Blood Sugars
This week I’d like to talk about the concept of diet-controlled diabetes. Sometimes, when a patient’s most recent bloodwork demonstrates a mild elevation in their blood sugars, their doctor offers them an opportunity to try to improve their sugars without medication. If the patient is able to bring their blood sugars into the normal range through changes in the way they eat, perhaps along with increasing their activity levels to some extent, the doctor diagnoses this patient with what they term “diet-controlled diabetes.” Continue reading
An Oatmeal Hierarchy (with recipe)
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
Is it Really Food?
While talking with patients about how to improve the nutritional value of their meals, we used to talk about real food that had not been processed, refined, stripped, polished, fortified, enriched or otherwise modified. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains, fish, eggs, dairy products, and meats. And that’s about it.
Here are some guidelines: The first is not to eat anything you have to be told is food. If you have to be told it’s food, it isn’t. Like “processed American cheese food.” Talk about truth in advertising. Some products at the supermarket have names that have nothing whatsoever to do with food. Like Miracle Whip®. Or Cool Whip®. These are not foods either, and that’s why I’m not buying. Continue reading
Some Exciting New Developments
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
More Disturbing News About Ultraprocessed Products
Almost three-quarters of packaged consumables sold in the United States are ultraprocessed. The vast majority of ultraprocessed packaged products for sale in the supermarket are placed in the center aisles. They comprise most of the menus at chain restaurants including, but not limited to, drive-through and “fast-food” establishments. At this point, they may safely be said to have edged out consumption of nourishing food in the United States. Continue reading
Disturbing News About Ultraprocessed Products
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