Living Well with SoHum Health: Ultra-processed Foods

SoHum Health aims to minimize harm and maximize vitality by providing an informative column to the community.

It’s been quite a while since the recommendation to shop the perimeter of the grocery store became a common approach to eating more healthy food, leading to more purchasing and consumption of foods closer to their natural, original state, like fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, dairy and eggs.

Avoiding the central aisles of the store was meant to eliminate packaged and processed choices of a wide variety, including both minimally processed things with ingredients you recognize and can pronounce, as well as highly processed items with endless ingredient lists packed with multisyllabic chemicals, preservatives, and artificial colors and flavor enhancers.

Then in 2009, Brazilian nutrition researcher Carlos Monteiro wrote a paper introducing the concept of “ultra-processed foods” (UPFs). In 2010 Monteiro and a team of researchers further defined what makes a processed food “ultra-processed” and the NOVA classification system was born.

Following the NOVA guidelines, those trips down the center aisles are less scary, once minimally processed foods are added back into a healthy diet. Just this year, even more nuanced reports have come out suggesting that in moderation, even some UPFs are OK to eat on occasion.

However, at the same time, more and more evidence is being gathered linking heavy consumption of UPFs with all kinds of serious health issues from metabolic syndrome to cognitive decline and strokes. In wealthy countries such as the US, UK, and Australia, it is estimated that up to 60% of calories consumed come from UPFs in the absence of a traditional food culture that in other countries guides family menus more toward homemade freshly prepared meals.

High consumption of UPFs is linked to 32 different health conditions according to a review published this year in the British Medical Journal. One study cited in the review looked at two different groups of people on controlled diets, one group eating 83% UPFs and the other eating 83% unprocessed foods. Three meals a day were served and participants were allowed an hour to eat what they wanted at each meal. After 14 days, it was learned that the UPF group ate 500 more calories per day and gained an average of two pounds, while the unprocessed group lost two pounds. These results confirmed suspicions gleaned from more anecdotal self-reported studies suggesting that because UPFs are calorie dense but nutrition-deficient, they lead to overeating. Furthermore, UPFs were consumed more rapidly owing to chemically enhanced taste as well as not producing a sense of fullness that more nutrient dense foods deliver.

More research is needed to tease out details of which chemical additives do the most harm, and it is suspected that cocktails of chemicals present in UPFs may have more harmful health implications than single ingredients, as does contamination from toxic packaging.

That high consumption of UPFs leads to obesity may be at least partly to blame for its association with many obesity-related health issues.

The NOVA model divides foods in 4 basic groups:

1.Unprocessed or minimally processed foods include meat, poultry, seafood, fish, eggs; fresh, frozen or dried fruit; leafy or root vegetables; and grains, seeds, and legumes.

2. Processed culinary ingredients include vegetable oils, salt, sugar, butter and lard, and plant-based starches.

3. Processed foods include canned beans, fruits, and vegetables, and fruits in syrup; salted, cured, or smoked meats; salted or sugared nuts and seeds; cheeses, and unpackaged, freshly made breads.

4. Ultra-processed foods include: sweet or savory packaged snacks, ice cream, chocolate and candies, instant soups, pre-packaged meals, mass-produced breads and cereals, and many types of energy bars.

These lists are basic, but give an idea of the categories.

If you’re braving the center aisles and your toddlers are bouncing off the walls of the shopping cart, a good rule of thumb is to look at the ingredients list and if there are more than five ingredients in the item you’re considering, put it back. Or, if there are more than five ingredients, do you know what they are or would you have them in your kitchen to prepare a homemade meal? If the answer is no, put it back.

There is some disagreement about these categories, which have been endorsed by the World Health Organization, but not by the US Department of Agriculture. Critics of high UPF consumption believe that the USDA’s reluctance to acknowledge the harm of UPFs stems from its protection of the high profits gleaned from the US food industry’s inclusion of shelf-life extending and cost-cutting chemicals in its products.

It must also be remembered that certain unprocessed foods, such as red meat, carry their own health risks for cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer.

Many related studies are also indicating that the social aspect of homemade meals prepared from fresh ingredients and shared among family and friends confers its own health benefits. Contrast that image with one of an over-worked office employee downing a microwaved frozen meal alone in front of the computer two hours into overtime. It’s not hard to figure out which scenario is healthier.

With the skyrocketing cost of food coupled with an understanding that quality nutrition is a key component of long-lasting health, it is good to know that minimally processed foods can be a part of a good diet. Be judicious in the grocery store, whether on the perimeter or in the center aisles. Make more meals at home and sit down together to discuss something stress-free like the upcoming election.