How Bad Are Ultraprocessed Foods?

How bad are ultraprocessed foods?  Well, it depends on who you ask.

But first, what are we even talking about?  Back in August 2022, we discussed a relationship between a lifestyle of consuming ultraprocessed foods and Alzheimer's disease.  One thing we did in that article was explain what ultraprocessed foods are and give examples.  We also cited specific research associating things we eat that may qualify more as industrial products than food with the development of dementia.  For our purposes, in the Dementia Toolkit, we focused on the correlation of refined sugar and refined flour with inflammation and oxidation in the brain.  That's bad for Alzheimer's disease.  But the thought is that, beyond that, more bad stuff is going on with carbonated soft drinks, sweetened breakfast cereals, candy, packaged snacks, powdered instant soup, reconstituted meat products, etc.  These may (or may not) be causing the worldwide obesity epidemic, and obesity is associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease.

I came across a fascinating article in The New Yorker magazine that first looked at some interesting research conducted at the National Institute of Health but then interviewed some of the critics of the research.  The outcome was a sort of survey of diverse thinking on this subject.  And it is diverse.  

The concept of ultraprocessed foods was proposed by the Brazilian researcher we discussed in the 2022 article, but research aimed at confirming the hypothesis that anything meeting the definition of ultraprocessed food will put you in memory care has been mixed.  The research was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.  They weren't concerned with Alzheimer's disease, but rather obesity.  Does consuming ultraprocessed foods really cause obesity, or is that a myth?  And if so, why?  (Anything causing obesity will lead to Alzheimer's.)  

The answer is yes, it does.  But calorie for calorie, the influence on body mass is the same between ultraprocessed foods and real food.  It seems that, more than anything, people just like the soda and salami a lot more than real food, and so they eat a lot more of it.

The article did discuss the spectrum of foods that can be classified as ultraprocessed, noting that they're not all bad for you.  It kind of depends.  Yogurt without cane sugar can be considered ultraprocessed, but the article says that doesn't mean that it's bad for you.  (Exceptions: people with lactose intolerance and those concerned that dairy in general has a downside.)  Organic whole grain bread can also be considered ultraprocessed, but it's part of the MIND diet.  So some critics don't think there's been adequate discernment between the types of ultraprocessed foods that are or are not a problem.

How the research was conducted was quite interesting.  They took 10 men and 10 women and locked them away for a couple of weeks.  They were watched closely enough to make sure that no one ate anything that wasn't provided to them in the study protocol.  They were given as much food as they wanted to eat during 60 minute meal times, rotating between unprocessed and ultraprocessed foods at the end of each week.  Steps were taken to obscure what class of food people were being given.  Test participants were weighed at the end of each rotation of foods.

Participants gained an average of nearly 0.9 pounds after a week on ultraprocessed foods, but lost an average of about 0.7 pounds after a week on real food.  The authors concluded, "Our data suggest that eliminating ultra-processed foods from the diet decreases energy intake and results in weight loss, whereas a diet with a large proportion of ultra-processed food increases energy intake and leads to weight gain."

I try to stick with the MIND diet, avoiding ultraprocessed foods.  I do eat plain yogurt that I sweeten with allulose and monk fruit sweeteners (mixing in walnuts and blueberries), which might qualify as ultraprocessed.  And I eat a couple of slices of whole grain bread, as called for by the MIND diet.  But, even when I combine this diet with regular fasting, I still struggle to keep my weight where I want it.