How Processed Food Has Created A Health Crisis

Transcript:

MELANIE: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. Let me ask you a question. If you were to turn on the TV or flip through a magazine or scroll through videos or you're in your doctor's office waiting area, how many of those advertisements are for junk food and junk beverages?

Now think about it again. And how many ads are for prescription medications? How about ads for promising the new key to weight loss? We are continuously being sold food that makes us sick and overweight. Then sold more to buy into unsustainable weight loss plans and offered prescription medications which aim to counter the effects of these foods and what they've done to our bodies.

In today's world, it's no secret that we are living in a health crisis largely caused by poor diet. In the U.S., over one third of adults are clinically obese and over two thirds are overweight. Global obesity tripled between 1970 and 2010. It's by no coincidence that obesity and an increase in our health issues are correlated to an increase in processed food diets. As we move away from home cooking and eating locally, this comes with a slew of other health issues that we're going to get into today.

We're going to get into the details of ultra processed foods in terms of what they are and what effect they've had on our health and how to eat to the best of our ability to support our health and the health of our family. I always tell my clients that it is never too late to start eating real food to support your health.

No matter where you are in your health journey, it's doable. Now, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Melanie Beasley. I'm a Registered and Licensed Dietitian for over 30 years. You know, my work looks very different than it did early in my career 30 years ago. It, it really has been eye-opening and also heartbreaking to see clients seeking help for more complex health concerns, and oftentimes at younger and younger ages.

BRITNI: I agree.

MELANIE: You might have read the news recently that cancers like cancers like colon cancer are skyrocketing in young people as early as their thirties. And experts are attributing this in part to overconsumption of ultra processed foods. In fact, last month I lost a client to colon cancer, young father of two small children. Early in my career, it was really rare to see a child struggling with obesity and type 2 diabetes. Now it's not so uncommon.

You also see the mental health crisis in people of all ages increasing, especially in our youth. As a dietitian with many years of experience, I can't help but see the correlation between the rise in ultra processed foods and the health crisis that we're living in right now in the United States.

It's really scary, but the good news is that we can be in the driver's seat of our own health, and we can advocate for our health through the foods that we eat. Joining me today is Britni Vincent, who's also a Registered Dietitian who has been able to overcome her own health issues through real food diet. Welcome, Britni.

BRITNI: Thank you, Melanie. I'm happy to be here with you today. And this is a topic I'm passionate about. I think all of us as dietitians are passionate about this.

MELANIE: Yes, I would say I'm downright angry.

BRITNI: Well, there's that too. Yeah. I mean, the, the truth of the matter is the way that we eat now is not what I was taught when I went to school to become a dietitian and I had an aha moment after my dietetic internship and realized like, why am I eating so many processed foods?

This is not what humans used to eat. This is not what my grandma or great grandparents ate. And that really helped me to realize this is not the way. We need to go back to the basics . And I mean, it surely positively impacted my health and how I felt on a daily basis. And then we see it every day with our clients.

MELANIE: Yes. I think my health as well; it truly impacted. But you know, you said, how did we get here? It's really like the frog that's put in a pot of cool water and they slowly raise the heat. Pretty soon the frog is boiling and you're like, how did I get here? And I feel like that is what has happened in our nation.

BRITNI: Yeah. And you, I mean, you mentioned feeling angry. I felt that way too, especially when I realized eating processed food is not the answer. What am I doing here?

MELANIE: What am I doing?

BRITNI: What was I taught?

MELANIE: And my job was really not about teaching my clients to be a detective in their food seeking.

BRITNI: Yeah, it's so true. We really do need to be a detective because food labels are made to be misleading and to sell products. And yeah, so you really have to look at every little thing on that label before you buy it.

MELANIE: There was a study published in February of this year in the British Medical Journal, which is one of the biggest peer reviewed medical journals. It said that, and I quote, “Consistent evidence shows that higher exposure to ultra processed foods is associated with an increased risk of 32 damaging health outcomes, including cancer, major heart and lung problems, mental health disorders, and early death.”

So if you are alarmed by that statement, which you should be, these startling increases in these health conditions are attributed to the rise in processed foods in our diet.

What is considered ultra processed food?

BRITNI: Well, let's take a step back here because we've been talking about ultra processed food. Some listeners might be wondering what are some examples of ultra processed food? To put it simply, we're talking about foods that do not come from nature, meaning you can't pick it, pluck it or hunt it. I mean, realistically, there are no pasta bushes, candy trees out there, right?

Thinking of it that way, there's so many processed foods out there, and most ultra processed foods contain a long laundry list of unrecognizable ingredients, and many are shelf stable, meaning they can sit on a shelf long term without going bad. Which, that's a good indicator that it's not a health food. I mean, think of a loaf of bread that you buy on the shelf. That could sit for weeks before going moldy.

MELANIE: Peanut butter crackers, Doritos, Skittles. I always tell my clients, if you put those on the counter and you went away for two weeks, you come back, what would you find? Same darn thing. Nothing would have changed. But if you put out some chicken salad, some cooked broccoli and some eggs.

BRITNI: It would be pretty disgusting.

MELANIE: Be pretty disgusting when you come back. So food that goes bad is good for you. Yeah, food that doesn't go bad is bad for you.

BRITNI: It's a simple way to think of it, but very effective.

MELANIE: Food should rot.

BRITNI: Yes. Yes. And, you know, thinking back a hundred years ago, we didn't have these problems of food sitting on our shelf or on our counter for weeks before going bad. Being able to preserve food after the industrial revolution was, of course, a huge advancement for human nutrition and preventing famine.

We now have canned goods, refined grains, which could be stored long term so we could get through the winters, feed more people, and even have food to ship overseas to our soldiers, but let's fast forward through the next several decades and the supermarkets became the normal way to shop for food instead of either growing your own or getting them from a neighbor and, of course, realistically, that's not going to happen for most of us.

We're not going to be able to grow our own food anymore, so the grocery stores are necessary, but there are plenty of those aisles that you don't even need to go down anymore. The ultra refined grains, processed seed oils, they're everywhere in supermarkets, vending machines, restaurants, and over time this has become the standard American diet, or often referred to as the SAD diet.

And now most of our diet in America is ultra processed food. So it's no doubt a huge convenience to be able to buy food that's ready to eat, but it's cost us our health in return. And, you know, no doubt these foods are addictive too.

MELANIE: Very addictive.

BRITNI: Food manufacturers make food to become addicting.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: So keeping.

MELANIE: And I think that's something people don't realize is it's not just that they're trying to make tasty food that you'll buy again, but they put ingredients in there that literally are addicting. So think about the most of the foods you see at the supermarket. They're baked goods, snacks, bottled sugary beverages, breakfast cereals, frozen microwaveable meals.

Those types of foods undergo tons of processing and often contain added colors, gums, thickening agents, flavorings like MSG and other additives. These food products are far, far away from natural, real foods. And they also tend to be high in sugar and preservatives and bad refined fats.

It's not just that they're low in nutrients. Our bodies need vitamins and fiber. And then they're also stored in packages of plastics and other kinds of packaging that often contain BPA and phthalates and microplastics and nano plastics. And these leach into our food. Which can also add to our health problems.

So that was a rant, but the scary reality is that ultra processed foods make up the majority of our calories in our modern day diet. What's even scarier is that children consume a higher percentage of ultra processed foods in their diet. And our children and grandchildren's health and longevity will be worse than our own in generations before us if we continue eating this way.

And I have to say their cells are continually turning over and growing. So the need for nutritionally dense quality food, it's higher and we are starving their cells.

BRITNI: Yeah, it is so true. There's this idea that they're kids, they can eat it. You know, the processed food is not going to affect them in the same way. And yes, while their bodies are more resilient than ours, it is still affecting them. Not to say they're never going to have some of those things, but…

MELANIE: And of course it is. If, if we think about. I never saw children with brain disorders that was affecting their learning ability. I never saw kids that had problems with growth factor, digestive issues, bloating, gas, diarrhea that just, it didn't come into my office.

BRITNI: Yeah. You know, at this point I think you may be thinking if ultra processed foods are on our grocery store shelves and served in our restaurants, can they really be that bad for us? The answer is yes. Sadly, just because the FDA recognizes it as a food that is safe doesn't mean that your body recognizes it as safe. In fact, in Europe, other parts of the world, there are many ingredients that are banned. But, they are allowed to be in our food here in the United States.

This includes some things like food colorings, certain hormones in animals and preservatives that have growing evidence to support that they increase cancer and damage the thyroid. These unwanted additives are found in things like breakfast cereal, chips, packaged baked goods, cake mixes, frozen dinners. I mean, the list goes on and on. If you shop at a local co-op or health food store, a lot of these stores do not allow food that contains some of these harmful chemicals. They still sell processed food though.

MELANIE: They still have some canola oils and some seed oils. You still have to be a detective of what you're eating and they do have processed foods. I mean, there is no cracker bush. So on that same note, just last month in August of this year, there was controversy with an article published by Time Magazine.

The title read, “What If Ultra Processed Foods Aren't as Bad as You Think?” Immediately there was a lot of backlash on social media from experts in the nutrition field. Good for them. Well, the next day the title had changed from “What if Ultra Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?” to “Why One Dietitian is Speaking Up for Ultra Processed Foods. Shame on her. Really?

BRITNI: Yeah.

MELANIE: They scrambled to change the headline after heavy criticism to reflect that this article was highlighting the opinion of one dietitian instead of an overarching misleading headline. Understandably, experts in the health and nutrition field were upset that such a major news publication would release a headline supposedly supporting eating ultra processed foods.

BRITNI: Alarming.

MELANIE: Alarming.

BRITNI: Naturally, you know, big food corporations have a stance that ultra processed foods have been unfairly targeted and can be part of a healthy diet. You have to keep in mind their pocketbooks are the motivation. Our health is not their motivation.

MELANIE: Well, you know, a healthy person is a lost patient. A lost patient requires medications and medications make money.

BRITNI: Yep. So true.

MELANIE: So I want to share a client testimonial. This was shared on our Facebook page by a real Nutritional Weight & Wellness client. Someone on the Facebook page had asked about, is the one-on-one consultation worth it? They were hesitant to spend the time and the money. And this is what one of our clients had to say in response.

She had said, “I felt the same way, but jumped in and did a one on one consultation. It was worth every single penny. What I got out of my meetings were life changing. I'm not dramatic when I say they saved my life. Also, check with your insurance. They may pay for some or all of it.”

She gave some good advice there. If you've been thinking about seeing what a meeting with a dietitian would look like, or a one-on-one consultation with one of us, you can learn more about our counseling services by visiting our website, weightandwellness.com, or calling us at 651-699-3438. We want to show you what the power of real food can do for you. We'll be right back.

Schedule Nutrition Counseling

BRITNI: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Before break, we were discussing big food corporations and how they have been promoting ultra processed foods and think that they've been targeted unfairly. And it's been reported that large food companies have already started lobbying against limiting processed food consumption in the upcoming dietary guidelines recommendations.

They know that people are becoming more aware of the dangers of eating their ultra processed food products. So they are trying to stop the reduction in sales. And it is true. People have become so much wiser and even since my career, I've seen a huge change in the knowledge of food that people have. This way of eating real food is no longer shocking or completely different. It's much more mainstream.

MELANIE: It's so wonderful. People are smart. People will listen to podcasts. People will follow certain people that are nutrition promoters, that are health promoters, and they're sick and tired of being sick and tired.

And I love the knowledge when people come in, they have pertinent questions and they have educated thoughts and it's really refreshing. And that's where social media has helped really paid off.

BRITNI: Yeah, I think so. But the unfortunate part is if you are not looking for this information, you're not going to find it. So there are still plenty of people out there that they really just don't realize how harmful these ultra processed foods can be.  

MELANIE: And I think also just as much information is out there on good nutrition.

BRITNI: Yeah.

MELANIE: There is twice as much information out there on any kind of nutrition or any kind of guide or which way to go. So it can be completely overwhelming. Where do you begin and who do you believe and which lane should I stay in? And so, you know, people are nutrition lane hoppers. They're going from, I'll try this and I'll try this and that's where we come in where we try to just narrow down, find a course, stay the course and take the stress out.

BRITNI: Yes. I hear that a lot in the initial appointments. I'm just, I'm confused. I want to understand the best way of eating for me.

MELANIE: Yes. Or I've got a drawer full of supplements under my bed I don't know what to do with because I just keep buying the next thing.

BRITNI: Yep. Yep.

Why are processed foods bad for our health & how are they made?

MELANIE: So why are processed foods so bad for our health? There are some different interpretations about what exactly is ultra processed foods. We understand that many healthy foods will need to be processed in some way, say frozen or canned foods. Well, these are processed, but still a healthy choice if you're mostly true to their original form.

What we mean by ultra processed foods are those that have been so altered from a natural food that they are unrecognizable from their original whole food form and contain a long list of mostly unrecognizable ingredients. You've heard us say it. There's no bread bush, cracker tree, fruit loop root.

So while minimally processed foods are generally okay, we're mostly suggesting to stay away from ultra processed foods. Food has to go through a process, right? A cow does not walk into your kitchen. We understand this. But if we can get you as close to a steak as you possibly can, it's going to be a lot better for you than a spam animal. Which there is no spam animal.

BRITNI: I don't think we want to know how exactly that is made.

MELANIE: No, or a Velveeta bush.

BRITNI: Let's break down a little bit how ultra processed foods are made. Take a mass produced crop like corn, wheat, or soy. They deconstruct it chemically in a lab so it's structurally altered. So they're not actually the same food that our body has evolved to recognize. They have pretty much no nutritional value at this point, and even if a food has added synthetic vitamins, like in boxed breakfast cereals for example, that's not the way your body prefers to get vitamins and minerals. In some cases, you're not even going to be able to absorb that specific form of that vitamin or mineral.

MELANIE: Good point.

BRITNI: These foods are stripped of their natural fiber. Typically, they're low in protein. So all the things your body needs to thrive, they really don't have. They're often can be high in sugar. Or high in carbohydrates. And the sugar comes in all different sources, high fructose, corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrin, cane sugar, fructose.

Again, the list goes on and on. There are dozens of different names for sugar to trick us as consumers when we read the food label. These foods often also contain excess salt to make up for lack of flavor. They're essentially hyper palatable, meaning they hit all those sweet spots on your taste buds that light up your brain, which in turn tells you to eat more. I mean, they figure all this out. They have scientists at the food companies. They figure this out to make us come back for more and more.

MELANIE: They test on people. They literally are figuring out the best way to get you to consume more and more and more. But, to your point, if you're eating real food, you fill up a lot faster. I have to laugh because my husband and I love to go antiquing. We're in antique stores all the time. The portion size of the plates, the little juice glasses, even the coffee cups are tiny. People did not consume platters of food when they sat down to eat.

BRITNI: So true. And, I mean, the reality is they're so easy to overeat and if you have a much larger plate and you put food on there, most people are going to eat all of it, even if they aren't necessarily hungry anymore.

MELANIE: Yeah.

Ultra processed food temporarily boost feed-good neurotransmitters

BRITNI: We get a nice boost in our feel good neurotransmitters each time you eat these ultra processed foods.

MELANIE: Very short lived. And then you crash.

BRITNI: Yep. And then your body wants more. So you get, again, addicted to that little burst of feeling really good. And like you said, they don't fill you up the same. It takes a lot more to feel full and satisfied because the reality is we need a balance of adequate animal protein, natural fats, and fiber, mostly from vegetable carbohydrates to signal your brain that you are satiated. A diet high and ultra processed foods will tend to make you eat more food each day because first they don't contain that balance of protein, fat and fiber.

And second, they light up the parts of the brain that tell you to keep eating more and more. So if you are somebody that, I hear this sometimes, I'm hungry all the time, I'm hungry every hour or two. Well, it's probably because you're eating too many of these ultra processed foods.

MELANIE: There's a thing that people do when they come into the clinic, they say, I'll go to the cupboard at night, open the cupboard, I'll get some sort of snackity snack treat, go back, eat it while I'm watching TV. Nope, that wasn't it. I'll go back to the cupboard and grab another processed, snackity snack treat, and then I'll go back and be like, nope, maybe I want something sweet.

That process, your body keeps sending you out for food. You keep coming back with a nutrient void food and the body goes, nope, wasn't it, sends you back on the hunt. Once we get people eating real food, and I know you hear this, Britni, too. They're like, I just can't eat this much.

BRITNI: Yes.

MELANIE: Yeah. Because the body goes, I'm good. I'm full. I'm nourished. And the cells are working. Everything's working how it should. And the body says, it's enough.

BRITNI: Yep.

MELANIE: That's the beauty of eating real food.

BRITNI: It is. And then you don't have to battle those cravings all the time.

How are common seed oils made?

MELANIE: Yeah. You're the boss of the food. The food is no longer the boss of you. So adding to that, let's share how fast food oils are made. Take a common seed oil used in foods like chips, crackers, baked goods, granola bars, salad dressings, and these are commonly made from soybean oil; that's just one for example.

The food manufacturers take the raw soybean, they add a solvent, very much like gasoline, heating it, at a very high temperature while bleaching, de gumming, and deodorizing, because apparently it stinks. It is then a damaged oil. Soybeans are not naturally rich in oil.

You've given the example all the time, Britni, on the podcast, where take a soybean, squeeze it between your fingers, you're not going to come up with oil. But it's a cheap crop, so food manufacturers have to do this long process to get some oil extracted out of them. In the meantime, heavily processing it so it is far away from a natural soybean form.

Processing of healthy oils & what to look for

Now on the flip side, if you think of an olive or an avocado or a coconut, if you squeeze those foods, oil naturally spills out. So these foods that are naturally rich in oil can be minimally processed to get the oil out. So cold pressed, expeller pressed, or extra virgin oils are minimally processed. A more natural option, your body says this is food, and that allows the oil to retain its nutrients. That's what we want.

BRITNI: And they taste delicious.

MELANIE: It can be confusing when we say seed oils because sunflower oil sounds like it should be a great oil, but it goes through this process. It is not cold pressed. So it has to go through these. It's a cheap oil has to go through all these processes to make it shelf stable because sunflowers seeds, they will go rancid. That's not what's happening to the ultra processed foods.

BRITNI: Yeah. The, all the oils and the fats, it is confusing territory. And I, I think, you know, just thinking about what are they in their natural state can be pretty helpful to determine what is a healthy option versus not; you know, let's throw out some examples here. A fast food chicken nugget. Some of them contain over 30 ingredients.

MELANIE: Wowza.

BRITNI: Yeah.

MELANIE: And how many of those can you pronounce?

BRITNI: Exactly. And only one of them is chicken. And so as you can imagine, there's not a whole lot of chicken in many chicken nuggets out there. And a lot of times it's not even the first ingredient in the list. What about, you mentioned Velveeta earlier. I grew up with Velveeta.

MELANIE: I did too, and it used to be a blend of cheese. Have you read the label lately?

BRITNI: Yeah, it's a cheese product, which means they're not over 50 percent cheese.

MELANIE: Right.

BRITNI: So it's full of, yeah, those refined oils and not good stuff. That's a great example. That could sit in there for months, maybe even years before going bad. You know, even corn, which is one of our biggest crops here in the United States is rarely eaten in its pure form. Only about 5 percent of the corn that we grow is actually corn on the cob or whole corn kernels. That is a wild statistic.

MELANIE: Yes.

Highly processed foods create inflammation

BRITNI: 95 percent of it is turned into either corn syrup or things like breakfast cereals and ultra processed foods. So as you can see from these examples, ultra processed foods are not recognizable by the body because they're so far from the real food and so void of nutrients. Your body sees them as harmful and they create a lot of inflammation.

MELANIE: So your body doesn't recognize these highly processed foods and the reaction of your body is to create inflammation and inflammation is the basis for all disease. Inflammation in your brain means Alzheimer's. Inflammation in your colon means colon cancer. So we are an inflamed nation.

BRITNI: Absolutely. It's hard, grasping the idea of inflammation because it's not always visible. But, I'm glad you brought that up. Inflammation really is the base of all health conditions. So, when you're loading your body with these inflammatory foods, each time you eat, day after day, for decades, you can see how your body's inflammation never goes down and eventually, it usually leads to bigger health issues like chronic disease, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, dementia, depression, again, the list goes on and on.

MELANIE: So much of our health really is attributed to our food choices. The old saying, you are what you eat, at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we believe in the power of real food for better health. Real animal protein from grass fed cows, pasture raised chickens and eggs, wild caught fish, real food carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables, and real healthy fat from natural oils that are cold pressed, expeller pressed from nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconuts. It's simple, but it's a powerful message.

BRITNI: You know, I think digestive issues are a very common reason why people come in to see us. And again, it stems from inflammation.

MELANIE: Yeah.

BRITNI: So I had an individual come in having diarrhea multiple times a day, which created a lot of anxiety because she didn't want to go out in public. She didn't want to travel to see her family and she wasn't eating all ultra processed foods, but there were enough of them in her diet that they were still creating inflammation and wreaking havoc.

So she made the changes eating real foods. We also focused on key supplements to heal her gut and that, that chronic diarrhea, went away.

MELANIE: Wow.

BRITNI: So she could go out and live her life like she wanted to.

MELANIE: Yes, and we're seeing more and more of the clients with the chronic diarrhea.

BRITNI: Yes.

MELANIE: Where I have a client where she wouldn't eat until the end of the day because she was so afraid that she would get diarrhea. Terrible. And, I had a client who came to me with extreme anxiety, young twenties, extreme anxiety to the point where she was practically housebound and she lived on processed foods and she fed her anxiety with snacks.

And because she was so anxious, she didn't want to go out and grocery shop. So she was actually getting food from Amazon delivered to her house. And I'm talking processed foods and snacks. So God love her. She got to my office in person appointment, super proud of her. We got her eating some real food, just some basic things, real food, and removed some of these ultra processed foods.

I saw her three weeks later and her disposition had changed so dramatically. She had enrolled herself in an online class because she wanted to better herself and get a job, but she had was unemployable because of her anxiety. It was…

BRITNI: That's amazing,

MELANIE: Terrible existence for her. And that was just the power of real food. And we corrected a vitamin D deficiency. That just started her down the path of just feeling like she had hope in her life. And so what a privilege that we get to work with these people.

BRITNI: Yeah. It is.

MELANIE: So listeners, we, Britni and I challenge you. Ask yourself, when you're taking every bite you take, it matters. Is it harming or healing? So every time you take a bite, ask yourself, did this come from a box or a bag?  Or did this come from its natural state, how it occurs in nature?

Can you find it at a farmer's field or barn? So this is what we want you to do is the more the demand is that you are wanting to eat real food, the more you're going into the grocery store and you're asking for these things, this is how we affect change in our food supply.

BRITNI: Yes. That is so true.

MELANIE: Because you matter. Your health matters. Your children's health matters. Your parents’ health matters. And this is one of the most powerful tools to gain health back.

BRITNI: Yeah, I mean, consumers are what is driving change right now.

MELANIE: Yes.

BRITNI: It is not the food industry. It is us and we are demanding more real food and making it more accessible and it's beautiful because then more people are positively affected by those changes.

MELANIE: Yes. Share this podcast with friends, family, anyone who's on the struggle bus with their health and you're affecting change in their lives because we are passionate about it as you can tell. So we really believe that real food makes a difference.

We want to help you with your health journey. At Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we believe in the power of real food for better health. So it's simple, but it's a powerful message. Eat real food. Let us help you in your health journey. We want to be there for you every step of the way to meet your health goals.

It can be overwhelming when you've had habits, but we can help you. So to learn more about meeting with us one on one visit us at weightandwellness.com to learn more or give us a call at 651-699-3438. We hope to meet with you soon. We've got weight reduction classes, health classes, cooking classes, one on one counseling. We can change your life. We've got an upcoming sugar challenge as well.

Check Out Our Website For More Information on Nutrition Counseling & Classes!

MELANIE: That one is so impactful.

BRITNI: Yes. To kick those cravings.

MELANIE: Kick them to the curb. Thanks for listening.

BRITNI: Thank you.