Ultra-Processed Foods

Modern nutrition science began about a century ago in the era of Nutrient Deficiency, which has given way to the era of Dietary Excess. No longer are we dying of nutrient deficiency diseases like scurvy as much as we’re dying from nutrient excess diseases like obesity and heart disease. So, nutrition science has become more about avoiding too many calories and too much saturated fat, sugar, and sodium, while remaining focused on nutrients. Food corporations were happy to adapt, dishing out fiber-fortified Froot Loops or fat-free Snackwells. That’s the limit of the market. The invisible hand is more than willing to hand us any kind of junk we want—low-fat junk, low-carb junk, non-GMO organic junk, and, especially ironically, processed paleo junk. They can make money off any fad, except food.

Nutrition science has finally moved beyond nutrientism and woke up to the role processing may play in the healthfulness of foods, focusing attention on the explosion of ultra-processed “foods.” Chemically or physically transformed using industrial processes, typically containing little or no whole foods, ready to consume or heat up, and usually fatty, salty, sugary, and depleted in dietary fiber and other nutrients. Think industrial formulations of ingredients not used in culinary preparations, like added flavors, colors, artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, and other additives used to imitate real foods. A Frosted Grape Pop-Tart has more grapes pictured on the front of its box than inside it.

Higher intake of ultra-processed foods has been associated with a laundry list of ailments. It makes sense that greater consumption would be associated with more dental cavities, thanks to their sugar, obesity, thanks to their concentration of calories, and an increased risk of high blood pressure, thanks to their salt, which is linked to higher rates of cardiovascular events, like heart attacks and strokes. And, since cardiovascular diseases are our leading killers, it also makes sense that excess intake of ultra-processed foods could lead to increased overall mortality.