The Silent Killer...

In a world full of Frankenfoods, the only food rule I follow is:

EAT mostly REAL WHOLE foods most of the time!

Why? ?Well, they’re delicious of course, but also because in my 10 years as a clinical physical therapist, I have met FAR too many THIN people with type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, poor mental health, cancer, you name it. ?While total calories may dictate your weight, what those calories are made up of plays a huge role in your health outcomes. ?And the ever growing body of evidence linking ultra processed foods to disease is disturbingly large. ?

A brief overview of the 4 food categories from NOVA:

1. Unprocessed/minimally processed: These are natural foods like fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood, fungi, spices, coffee, eggs, nuts/seeds, and flakes/flours/grains without additives.
2. Culinary ingredients: These are directly obtained from group 1 and rarely used without group 1. ?These are things like salt, sugar, honey, butter, cooking oils, vinegar, lard, etc…
3. Processed foods: These usually include 2-3 ingredients and optimize for preservation. ?These are canned fruits and vegetables, salted/sugared nuts, smoked/cured meats, canned fish, cheese, and unpackaged fresh bread.
4. Ultra-processed foods, UPFs: These are industrial formulations with 5+ ingredients including dyes, colors, flavors, flavor enhancers, stabilizers, sweeteners, emulsifiers, and many other chemicals and additives. ?These include most packaged foods, chips, cookies, candies, energy bars and drinks, breakfast cereals, infant formulas, poultry/fish nuggets, reconstituted meat products, powdered and instant soups, and desserts and so much of the “food” you see on the shelves in the store. ?

UPFs now account for 57.5% of total energy intake in America and they are wreaking havoc on our minds and bodies.

UPFs are linked to an increase in all cause mortality, cancer, type 2 diabetes, frailty, obesity, mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety and many more diseases. ?The additives like emulsifiers, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and toxins as well as contaminants that are produced during processing disrupt the microbiome, induce inflammation, and may alter gene expression. ?

Now, it’s easy to think eating junk food causes obesity and obesity causes disease. ?While it is true that obesity increases the risk for MANY diseases, the research shows that regardless of body fat, the more UPF you consume, the higher your risk for adverse health conditions.

All that being said, humans are pretty damn resilient so we can probably tolerate some UPFs occasionally, especially if you’re otherwise metabolically well, but the dose makes the poison yet again. ?Increased consumption of these foods WILL increase risk for chronic disease including mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.

So, what does this mean? ?It means choose as many unprocessed and minimally processed foods as possible. ?The foundations of your diet should be meat and seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats. ?If you need a sweet fix, try making it at home from whole ingredients and keep the consumption of ultra processed foods to a minimum. ?