Ultra-Processed Foods - The Low Down Part 1

Ultra-processed foods are dominating the headlines right now, and there’s no sugar-coating it. Modern diets are having an alarming impact on our health.

“People consuming more ultra-processed food have a higher risk of disease and death,” says Dr Sarah Berry on BBC’s Panorama: Ultra-Processed Food – A Recipe for Ill Health?

“All of the crises we face, the climate crisis, the biodiversity crisis and the health crisis, all come together when we’re looking at ultra-processed foods,” adds Soil Association policy advisor Cathy Cliff.

“I think it’s one thing in nutrition that we all agree on, ultra-processed foods are bad,” states nutritionist Lucy Williamson.

It’s a bleak picture and one that’s hard to ignore.

Why are ultra-processed foods so common?

If I’m honest, watching the Panorama episode drove me straight to comfort food.

I watched it twice, once alone, and once with my family, insisting they needed to see it too. My parents, both managing type-2 diabetes, sat alongside snacks we all recognised: crisps, chocolate, fizzy drinks.

That’s the reality. Ultra-processed foods are everywhere, and incredibly hard to resist.

In the UK, they now make up around:

• 50% of adult diets

• 65% of children’s diets

And those numbers are still rising.

Professor Tim Spector puts it bluntly:

“That means more type-2 diabetes, more cancers, more heart disease, more misery, more mental illness. This really is a future timebomb… and we’re sleepwalking into it.”

What are ultra-processed foods?

Most foods are processed in some way to make them safe or edible, things like pasta, frozen peas, milk or dried fruit. These aren’t the issue.

Ultra-processed foods, however, are different.

They’ve been altered to the point where the original ingredients are no longer recognisable. They often contain long ingredient lists filled with additives, preservatives and emulsifiers, things you’re unlikely to have in your kitchen.

The NOVA classification system is widely used to define and categorise these foods. Read more about the classifications from the British Medical Journal here.

Why are Ultra-Processed Foods so damaging to our health?

Ultra-processed foods have been linked to a wide range of physical and mental health conditions, including:

• Depression [3a]

• Cardiovascular disease [3b]

• Dementia [3c]

• Chronic kidney disease [3d]

• Inflammatory bowel disease [3e]

• Type-2 diabetes [3f]

• Colorectal cancer [3g]

• Eating disorders [3h]

Why are ultra-processed foods so addictive?

Have you ever eaten a fast-food burger and felt hungry about an hour later? It’s not just what’s in ultra-processed foods - it’s how they’re made.

They’re often high in fat, salt and sugar, but also engineered in a way that makes them easy to overeat.

Nutritionist Lucy Williamson explains that ultra-processing changes the structure of food, making sugars easier to absorb. This creates a rapid “hit” of energy that activates the brain’s reward system.

That leads to:

• Blood sugar spikes

• A quick drop in energy

• Increased hunger

So we reach for more, often the same types of food.

Studies show that people who eat a lot of ultra-processed food consume up to 500 extra calories per day compared to those eating more whole foods. [7].

Are all processed foods bad?

Not all processed foods are harmful.

Minimally processed foods, like milk, frozen vegetables, or dried fruit, still retain their natural structure and nutritional value.

The concern lies specifically with ultra-processed foods, where both ingredients and structure have been significantly altered.

Williamson says:

“The greater the variety of microbes in our gut, the better. If you’re on a high ultra-processed food diet, there are more free sugars floating around in your gut and microbes do not thrive in a sugary environment. We know from really robust research that our gut microbiome impacts our whole health – it’s at the root of many of the chronic health issues of our time.”

So, what should we eat instead?

That’s the big question, and one we’ll explore in part two.

Lizzie looks at what a healthier diet can look like, including where your favourite Yeo products fit in.

READ:

Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? Dr Chris van Tulleken

LISTEN:

Radio 4’s The Food Programme podcast, titled UPF WTF

REFERENCES:

[1a]. Swinburn, B.A., et al. (2019), The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change: The Lancet Commission report, The Lancet, Volume 393, Issue 10173, 791–846 and Dr Sarah Berry, Kings College London, Panorama Ultra-Processed Food: A recipe for ill health?

[2] FAO (2019). Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health using the NOVA classification system. http://www.fao.org/3/ca5644en/ca5644en.pdf

[3] https://www.soilassociation.org/media/25469/taking-the-biscuit-2023-report.pdf:

[3a] Mazloomi, S.N. et al. (2022). The association of ultra-processed food consumption with adult mental health disorders: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis

of 260,385 participants. Nutritional Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2022.2110188

[3b] Debras, C. et al. (2022). Artificial sweeteners and risk of cardiovascular diseases: results from the prospective NutriNet-Santé cohort. BMJ; 378. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071204

[3c]. Li, H. et al. (2022). Association of Ultraprocessed Food Consumption With Risk of Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study. Neurology, Jul 27. https://n.neurology.org/content/99/10/e1056

[3d]. Du, S. et al. (2022). Association Between Ultraprocessed Food Consumption and Risk of Incident CKD: A Prospective Cohort Study. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Volume 80, Issue 5, November, Pages 589-598.e1. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2022.03.016

[3e]. Chen, J. et al. (2022). Intake of ultraprocessed foods is associated with an increased risk of Crohn’s disease: a crosssectional and prospective analysis of 187,154 participants in the UK Biobank. Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis, jjac167, https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjac167

[3f]. Li, M. & Shi, Z (2022). Association between Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Diabetes in Chinese Adults—Results from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Nutrients, 14(20), 4241; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14204241

[3g]. Wang, L. et al. (2022) Association of ultraprocessed food consumption with colorectal

cancer risk among men and women: results from three prospective US cohort studies. BMJ 2022; 378. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj2021-068921

[3h]. Figueiredo, N. et al. (2022). Ultraprocessed food intake and eating disorders:

Cross-sectional associations among French adults. Journal of Behavioral Addictions. Volume 11: Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2022.00009

[4] Panorama, Ultra-Processed Food: A recipe for ill health? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001mp67/panorama-ultraprocessed-food-a-recipe-for-ill-health

[5] Panorama, Ultra-Processed Food: A recipe for ill health? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001mp67/panorama-ultraprocessed-food-a-recipe-for-ill-health

[6] BBC One: King’s academics highlight impact of ultra-processed food on health

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/kings-college-london-ultra-processed-food-tim-spector

[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31269427/

FURTHER READING:

Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?

Dr Chris van Tulleken