ultra-processed food
description: food products that have undergone extensive processing and contain artificial ingredients
11 results
The Hunger Code: How to Reset Your Body's Fat Thermostat by Breaking the Ultra-Processed Food Habit
by Jason Fung · 3 Mar 2026 · 284pp · 76,656 words
a Low-Insulin Diet Chapter 4: How Hormones Sustain Hunger Chapter 5: Managing Hunger, Not Calories Part 2: Hedonic Hunger Chapter 6: Getting Hooked On Ultra-Processed Foods Chapter 7: Understanding Food Addiction Chapter 8: Managing Emotional Eating Part 3: Conditioned Hunger Chapter 9: Living in an Obesogenic Environment Chapter 10: Recognizing
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from the discussion of insulin and cortisol in The Obesity Code to consider the body fat thermostat more fully, along with recent information about how ultra-processed foods, food addictions, and the emotional and social aspects of obesity contribute to weight. This book explores the concept of hunger more fully, including homeostatic,
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the weight gain, we can design the appropriate solution. For one person, the root cause of weight gain may be emotional eating; for another, eating ultra-processed foods. The causes are different, and therefore the treatments are different too. Essentially, to successfully lose weight and keep it off, we need to understand
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3.5 miles (5.6 km) every day, and plans to continue teaching for another ten years! Part Two * * * Hedonic Hunger 6 Getting Hooked on Ultra-Processed Foods * * * In 2013, brazil was facing a national crisis: obesity. Dr. Carlos Monteiro, an epidemiologist at the University of São Paulo, studying the data, noticed
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based on Dr. Monteiro’s recommendation, the Brazilian government completely rewrote its dietary guidelines to concentrate on one action: getting its citizens to stop eating ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Dr. Monteiro and others believed this action was the single most important step for good health. This insight would ultimately transform the world of
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have steadily grown across all ages, both sexes, and all demographic groups,3 and the rest of the world is following close behind. What are Ultra-Processed Foods? In everyday language, we talk about “junk food,” “convenience food,” and “fast food” to describe foods that are processed and packaged—and contribute to
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to their level of processing (Figure 6.14).5 Figure 6.1. The four groups of the NOVA food classification system, from unprocessed to ultra-processed foods Group 1: Unprocessed or minimally processed foods Plants or animals are obtained directly from nature and not altered following their removal from nature. Minimally processed
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from Group 2. They are easily recognized as versions of the original food. Examples: canned fruits and vegetables, tomato paste, beef jerky Group 4: Ultra-processed food and drink products These products are usually processed in various ways from cheap, industrially produced sources, combining food basics such as dietary energy and nutrients
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additives. These products generally contain minimal whole foods as well as ingredients not found in a home kitchen. Examples: candies, breakfast cereals, supermarket bread Ultra-processed foods, in Group 4, are entirely different from the other three groups of foods because they are manufactured more than they are grown. Compare traditional homemade
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highly likely to be a UPF. Most store-bought bread, muffins, bagels, cakes, cookies, and biscuits fit squarely in the UPF category. Why are Ultra-Processed Foods so Fattening? UPFs can be manipulated in almost infinite ways that natural or minimally processed foods cannot. Meat, for example, has only a certain range
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homeostatic mechanism was not enough to reverse the weight gain. The UPFs simply overwhelmed the body fat thermostat (Figure 6.2). Figure 6.2. Ultra-processed food decreases satiety but increases hunger and insulin, which makes us gain weight Here’s the important thing. The biggest problem is not the calories or
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that ultra-processing causes people to eat more calories, more carbs, and more fat. For lasting success, you need to treat the root cause (the ultra-processed foods), not the proximate cause or symptom (the increase in calories, carbs, insulin, and body weight). If you have depression that causes alcoholism, then you
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In, Calories Out argument. They can always tell you to exercise more. No wonder weight loss can be such an uphill battle. How did Ultra-Processed Foods Take Over the World? Today, the ultra-fattening UPFs have almost completely displaced minimally processed foods to dominate America’s diet. From 1800 to 2019
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on calories and macronutrients (fat, carbohydrates, and proteins). The consequences were disastrous. The new dietary guidelines changed the way most of us eat, allowing ultra-processed foods, like a Trojan horse, to sneak into and overwhelm the American diet. Converting natural foods into low-fat foods required ultra-processing in a factory
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healthy, so who cared if those foods were completely artificial and ultra-processed? The American Heart Association sold their Heart-Check mark, endorsing many, many ultra-processed foods like sugary cereals as “heart healthy.” UPFs flooded into the supermarkets disguised as “health foods” because foods were considered equal if the calories and
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are not. UPFs are designed to appeal to us on every level. Too bad about that whole “gaining weight” thing. The Advantages of Ultra-Processing Ultra-processed foods, like the iconic sliced white bread, have many advantages over natural, unprocessed foods. Not only are they super easy to eat, and eat quickly,
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practices, children are heavily affected by the messaging. The average Canadian three-year-old child gets a stunning 45 percent of their calories from ultra-processed foods. Every 10 percent increase in UPF consumption is associated with a 17 percent increase in the risk of being overweight or obese at age five
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consider themselves addicted to their cell phone, checking it an average of 205 times per day.2 But another addictive product may rule them all: ultra-processed foods. Can Foods Really Be Addictive? Addiction can be defined as a repetitive behavior that some people find difficult to quit. Not everyone must develop
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had begun to look for other ways to leverage their prowess with manipulating flavors, marketing products, lobbying politicians, and influencing scientists. The natural successor was ultra-processed foods. In 1985, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company bought food giant Nabisco. The same year, tobacco giant Philip Morris (now Altria) bought processed food giant
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are either high in carbohydrates (plant foods like potatoes and rice) or fat (animal foods like eggs, meat, and butter), but not in both. Ultra-processed foods often combine carbohydrates and fats to produce a peak in the “bliss point,” the point where improved texture and mouthfeel create maximum pleasure. Functional MRI
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published on treating food addictions have shown substantial promise. A low-carbohydrate, real food diet combined with online group counseling showed “significant, sustained improvement in ultra-processed food addiction symptoms and mental well-being.”30 Hopefully, increased recognition of food addiction can lead to better treatments and less stigma. Tip #31: Learn
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to recognize signs of food addiction, abstain from ultra-processed foods, and seek support. 8 Managing Emotional Eating * * * Roxane gay, the New York Times bestselling author, weighed 577 pounds (261 kg) at her heaviest. In
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higher levels of obesity than other parts of the U.S. Why are some places so obesogenic? Many factors come into play: The ubiquity of ultra-processed foods (24/7 coffee shops, fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, drive-thrus, food delivery services) The endless choice of ultra-processed and fast foods (burgers,
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many factors beyond simple individual choice affect weight. However, let’s look at a few of these factors in more detail. The ubiquity of ultra-processed foods Hunger increases when you think about food or when you see, smell, or anticipate food. The thought of fresh popcorn in the theater suddenly
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while playing games. No eating during sports. No eating in front of the computer. Why did you eat? Mainly to satisfy hunger. Without many ultra-processed foods, emotional eating and food addiction were rare. Since you couldn’t eat wherever you wanted, eating out of boredom was more difficult. Food networks showing
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including the hormone noradrenaline) rises, which reduces hunger. Long-term fasting also reduces ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Fasting gives the body a break from the ultra-processed foods that create problems with food addictions and emotional eating. Abstinence, which is the hallmark of fasting, helps to interrupt physical and psychological cravings. Regular fasting
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like to reframe Create a personal “mantra” for change Let’s consider two of the most important aspects of weight loss: avoiding ultra-processed foods and fasting regularly. Reframing ultra-processed foods Food companies have spent literally billions of dollars to associate their ultra-processed product with happy feelings. Coca-Cola associates their brand with
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Eat only two meals per day. Eat satiating foods at mealtimes. Avoid eating between meals. Eat only in designated areas. Eat natural foods. Avoid ultra-processed foods. Don’t eat all the time. Fast for sixteen hours a day every day, except for Saturday. Fast for the first five days of every
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healthy habits; you have no default to a healthy eating pattern. In fact, you get no guidance whatsoever; you don’t get help addressing ultra-processed foods, food addiction, or emotional eating; you don’t get help addressing the social or societal aspects of eating behavior; and you judge foods purely
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they give us pleasure and make us feel better (temporarily). That is reality. How can we address these emotional triggers to tame hedonic hunger? Understanding ultra-processed foods, food addictions, and emotional eating is a start. Perhaps the most important factors of all are societal and social factors. We succeed when our
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meals per day makes you hungry less often. Habitually eating smaller meals makes you less hungry overall. Having peer support means you rely less on ultra-processed foods to “self-medicate” your anxiety or depression, and you have many people to model healthy eating habits. Does this this third Golden Rule help
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, and great-grandmother follow certain food rules, then it’s likely that advice will continue to be good. Avoiding fake, artificial foods—now called ultra-processed foods—and eating traditional, ancestral, natural foods is probably one of the oldest food rules in existence. In its zeal to equate all foods to their
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caloric content, the “religion” of Calories In, Calories Out temporarily sidelined this idea. For a time, people believed that eating ultra-processed foods that were low in fat was very healthy. Similarly, the Lindy Effect applies to fasting. Fasting, too, is likely one of the oldest food rules
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berries Fats: olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, lard, beef tallow Spices: pepper, chili, garlic, ginger, turmeric, rosemary, cinnamon, cardamom What not to eat Avoid ultra-processed foods. They can make you hungrier and are often sold as healthy foods, but they’re not. Avoid insulin-spiking foods. Here are some popular “healthy
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-based” is meant to convey that a food is automatically healthy, but plant-based meats are a fake food that goes way, way beyond regular ultra-processed food. These “meats” are mega-processed chemistry experiments. No naturally occurring soybean, pea, or mushroom tastes like meat, has the texture of meat, smells
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across four dietary patterns. Nat Food. 2023 Feb;4(2):144–7. doi: 10.1038/s43016-022-00688-4. Chapter 6: Getting Hooked On Ultra-Processed Foods 1 Dietary guidelines: the Food Guide Pyramid is demolished. World Public Health Nutrition Association. 2011 June. Available from: https://www.wphna.org/htdocs/2011_june
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-in-america. Accessed 2025 Aug 27. 9 Data source for Figure 6.3: Wood et al. What is the purpose of ultra-processed food? An exploratory analysis of the financialisation of ultra-processed food corporations and implications for public health. Global Health. 2023 Nov 13;19(1):85. doi: 10.1186/s12992-023-00990-1
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it mean for my health? BBC Food. 2025 April. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/what_is_ultra-processed_food. Accessed 2025 Aug 27. 22 Rauber F et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and chronic non-communicable diseases-related dietary nutrient profile in the UK (2008–2014). Nutrients. 2018 May 9;10(
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;18(10):1122-1135. doi: 10.1111/obr.12566. 30 Unwin J et al. Low carbohydrate and psychoeducational programs show promise for the treatment of ultra-processed food addiction: 12-month follow-up. Front Psychiatry. Sec. Addictive Disorders;2025 13 April;16. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1556988. Chapter 8: Managing Emotional
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197; hormones and, 28, 32–35, 65–66, 67; overfeeding studies and, 24–25, 34; satiating foods and, 81; sympathetic tone and, 72–74; ultra-processed foods and, 108 body temperature, 27, 28 boredom, eating out of, 176–77 brain: addiction and, 120, 122; artificial sweeteners and, 91; body fat thermostat and
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breakfast, 107, 110, 118, 123, 127 chia seeds, 48, 55–56 children: emotional eating and, 137; food addiction and, 129; habitual eating and, 165, 171; ultra-processed foods and, 115, 116, 127 Chile, 160 China, 85, 87, 121, 173, 192 chlorogenic acid, 89 cholecystokinin, 13, 34, 71, 81, 86 circadian rhythm, 59–60
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thermostat homeostatic hunger: about, xvii–xviii, 22, 23, 136, 219–20; avoiding, 92; consciousness of, 142; hormones and, 15, 22, 65, 78, 219–20; ultra-processed foods and, 120 hormone replacement therapy, 75 hormones: about, 42; body fat thermostat and, 28, 32–35, 65–66, 67; cholecystokinin, 13, 34, 71, 81, 86
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22–23; weight loss through reducing, 71. See also conditioned hunger; eating; fasting; homeostatic hunger; satiety hydration, 27, 28 hyper-palatable foods, 93. See also ultra-processed foods hyperthyroidism, 76 hypoglycemia, 46, 58, 59, 76–78 hypothyroidism, 76 incretins, 33, 70–71, 81. See also glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1); glucose-dependent
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, 140–41, 160 mindset: Golden Rule (commitment), 214, 222; importance of, 199–200; management and developing, 200–202; reframing fasting and snacking, 204–5; reframing ultra-processed foods, 203–4 modified starches, 119 monosodium glutamate (MSG), 123 Monteiro, Carlos, 99–100 Mounjaro (tirzepatide), 71, 79 Mozaffarian, Dariush, 3, 7 mushrooms, 49, 226,
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Ethan, 24, 34 sleep, 69 smoking, 72–73, 78, 121, 124, 125, 126, 128, 134, 202. See also nicotine smoothies, 54 snack foods. See ultra-processed foods snacking, 69, 141, 169, 173, 191–92, 204 social modeling (social cues), 158–60, 177, 220, 225. See also conditioned hunger; habits sodas, diet, 90
Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food
by Chris van Tulleken · 26 Jun 2023 · 448pp · 123,273 words
slime in my ice cream? The invention of UPF 2. I’d rather have five bowls of Coco Pops: the discovery of UPF 3. Sure, ‘ultra-processed food’ sounds bad, but is it really a problem? 4. (I can’t believe it’s not) coal butter: the ultimate UPF PART TWO BUT
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entire ecosystem of constantly evolving corporations, from giant transnational groups to thousands of smaller national companies. And their bait for extracting the money is called ultra-processed food, or UPF. These foods have been put through an evolutionary selection process over many decades, whereby the products that are purchased and eaten in the
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for the rapid increase in overweight and obesity throughout the world, especially since the 1980s, is the correspondingly rapid increase in production and consumption of ultra-processed food and drink products. I had never heard of UPF and was sceptical of a single overarching explanation of the obesity pandemic, which is widely
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beans, salted nuts, smoked meat, canned fish, chunks of fruit in syrup and proper freshly made bread. And then we come to Group 4, ‘ultra-processed foods’. It’s long, perhaps the longest definition I’d ever read of a scientific category: ‘Formulations of ingredients, mostly of exclusive industrial use, made by
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a series of industrial processes, many requiring sophisticated equipment and technology.’ That’s just the first bit. It continues: ‘Processes used to make ultra-processed foods include the fractioning of whole foods into substances, chemical modifications of these substances ...’ Exactly as Paul described, crops like corn and soy are turned into
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the same. The definition of UPF continues for a long time before concluding in a way that suddenly resonated: ‘Processes and ingredients used to manufacture ultra-processed foods are designed to create highly profitable (low-cost ingredients, long shelf life, emphatic branding) convenient (ready-to-consume) hyperpalatable products liable to displace freshly
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a little bit ... arbitrary? The contrarian journalist Christopher Snowdon made this point exactly when, in January 2022, he wrote a blogpost titled ‘What is “ultra-processed food”?’.14 The piece had been inspired, Snowdon said, by a ‘deranged’ op-ed about UPF in the British Medical Journal. His summary of this ‘arbitrariness
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handful of restaurant chains. And so, in the absence of an obvious dietary culprit, the “public health” lobby is shifting towards a crusade against “ultra-processed food”.’ Snowdon had particular beef with one of the op-ed’s rules of thumb for identifying UPF: that UPF is likely to contain more than
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. For a dissection of the problems with BMI, I recommend ‘The bizarre and racist history of the BMI’ by Aubrey Gordon.15 3. Sure, ‘ultra-processed food’ sounds bad, but is it really a problem? The second weekend of my diet I went on a camping trip with my brother Xand and
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was 41kg, despite participants maintaining high levels of exercise. Hall’s study underlined the enormous difficulty in maintaining weight loss. ‘And, finally, my work on ultra-processed foods ... I guess it’s four things, in fact,’ Hall said. This last study was why I was speaking with him. I certainly hadn’t
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note that the NOVA system has not been universally accepted. There’s a handful of papers that are critical. A well-known one, titled ‘Ultra-processed foods in human health: a critical appraisal’, was published in 2017 by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.36 The authors’ main objection is that NOVA
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– emerges. In the case of obesity, the completed jigsaw will show that inactivity is not a significant contributor, and that the primary cause is ultra-processed food and drink. This is an existential threat to the companies whose existence depends on sales of these products. The tactic of Coca-Cola, and other
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She told me how UPF, especially products with particular combinations of salt, fat, sugar and protein, can drive our ancient evolved systems for ‘wanting’: ‘Some ultra-processed foods may activate the brain reward system in a way that is similar to what happens when people use drugs like alcohol, or even nicotine or
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Evidence of prey-caused mortality in three wolves. The American Midland Naturalist 1990; 123: 207–08. 5 Rauber F, Chang K, Vamos EP, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and risk of obesity: a prospective cohort study of UK Biobank. European Journal of Nutrition 2020; 60: 2169–80. 6 Chang K, Khandpur N
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Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children birth cohort. JAMA Pediatrics 2021; 175: e211573. 7 Baraldi LG, Martinez Steele E, Canella DS, et al. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and associated sociodemographic factors in the USA between 2007 and 2012: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study. BMJ Open 2018; 8: e020574. 8
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73–85. 2. I’d rather have five bowls of Coco Pops: the discovery of UPF 1 Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Lawrence M, et al. Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health using the NOVA classification system. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019. 2 Ioannidis JPA. Why most published
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research findings are false. pLoS Medicine 2005; 2: e124. 3 Rauber F, da Costa Louzada ML, Steele EM, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and chronic non-communicable diseases-related dietary nutrient profile in the UK (2008–2014). Nutrients 2018; 10: 587. 4 Rauber et al, 2020. 5
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Chang et al, 2021. 6 Rauber F, Steele EM, da Costa Louzada ML, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and indicators of obesity in the United Kingdom population (2008–2016). pLoS One 2020; 15: e0232676. 7 Martínez Steele E, Juul F, Neri D
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, Rauber F, Monteiro CA. Dietary share of ultra-processed foods and metabolic syndrome in the US adult population. Preventive Medicine 2019; 125: 40–48. 8 Public Health England. Annex A: The 2018 review of the
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participants and patients with various diseases. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012; 3: CD007176. 14 Snowdon C. What is “ultra-processed food”? 2022. Available from: https://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2022/01/what-is-ultra-processed-food.html. 15 Your Fat Friend. The bizarre and racist history of the BMI. 2019. Available from: https://elemental.medium.com
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/the-bizarre-and-racist-history-of-the-bmi-7d8dc2aa33bb. 3. Sure, ‘ultra-processed food’ sounds bad, but is it really a problem? 1 Hall KD, Sacks G, Chandramohan D, et al. Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance
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an inpatient randomized controlled trial of ad libitum food intake. Cellular Metabolism 2019; 30: 67–77. 4 Martini D, Godos J, Bonaccio M, et al. Ultra-processed foods and nutritional dietary profile: a meta-analysis of nationally representative samples. Nutrients 2021; 13: 3390. 5 October 28. Health inequalities and obesity. 2020. Available from
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: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/health-inequalities-and-obesity. 6 Fiolet T, Srour B, Sellem L, et al. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort. British Medical Journal 2018; 360: k322. 7 Zhong G-C, Gu H-T, Peng Y,
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et al. Association of ultra-processed food consumption with cardiovascular mortality in the US population: long-term results from a large prospective multicenter study. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
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Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III, 1988–1994). Public Health Nutrition 2019; 22: 1777–85. 11 Bonaccio M, Di Castelnuovo A, Costanzo S, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption is associated with increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the Moli-sani Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2021; 113: 446
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–55. 12 Chen X, Chu J, Hu W, et al. Associations of ultra-processed food consumption with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: UK Biobank. European Journal of Public Health 2022; 32: 779–85. 13 Bonaccio et al, 2021. 14
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Kim et al, 2021. 15 Srour B, Fezeu LK, Kesse-Guyot E, et al. Ultra-processed food intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: prospective cohort study (Nutri-Net-Santé). British Medical Journal 2019; 365: l1451. 16 Fiolet et al, 2018. 17 Llavero
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diabetes among participants of the NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort. JAMA Internal Medicine 2020; 180: 283–91. 19 Jardim MZ, Costa BVdL, Pessoa MC, et al. Ultra-processed foods increase noncommunicable chronic disease risk. Nutrition Research 2021; 95: 19–34. 20 Silva Meneguelli T, Viana Hinkelmann J, Hermsdorff HHM, et al. Food consumption by
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risk: a systematic review. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 2020; 71: 678–92. 21 de Mendonça RD, Lopes ACS, Pimenta AM, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and the incidence of hypertension in a Mediterranean cohort: the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra Project. American Journal of Hypertension 2017; 30: 358–66. 22
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Zhang S, Gan S, Zhang Q, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the Tianjin Chronic Low-Grade Systemic Inflammation and Health Cohort Study. International Journal of
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Epidemiology 2021; 51: 237–49. 23 Narula N, Wong ECL, Dehghan M, et al. Association of ultra-processed food intake with risk of inflammatory bowel disease: prospective cohort study. British Medical Journal 2021; 374: n1554. 24 Lo C-H, Khandpur N, Rossato S,
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et al. Ultra-processed foods and risk of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis: a prospective cohort study. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2022; 20: 1323–37. 25 Gómez-Donoso C
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C, Sabate J-M, et al. Association between ultra-processed food consumption and functional gastrointestinal disorders: results from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort. American Journal of Gastroenterology 2018; 113: 1217–28. 27 Zhang S, Gu Y
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, Rayamajhi S, et al. Ultra-processed food intake is associated with grip strength decline in middle-aged and older adults: a prospective analysis of the TCLSIH study. European Journal of Nutrition 2022
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2 diabetes, 35, 62, 110, 198, 201–4, 216, 218, 220, 227, 241 U-boats, 72 Uganda, 246 Ukraine, 29 ulcerative colitis, 62, 216 ultra-processed food (UPF), 5–11 addictiveness, 153–68, 179, 206–7, 271, 303–4 appetite regulation and, 31, 37, 41, 56–9, 106–8, 160, 173 cost
Hormone Repair Manual
by Lara Briden · 14 Apr 2021
and lifestyle to support digestive health • Reduce alcohol because it can damage the microbiome. • Eat vegetables and healthy starches because they feed friendly bacteria. • Avoid ultra-processed food because it starves friendly bacteria. • Avoid concentrated sugar because it can feed unfriendly bacteria. • Identify food sensitivities such as to wheat and dairy and avoid
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to feel full, feed gut bacteria and promote healthy estrogen metabolism. Neither fat nor carbohydrate is inherently bad. The problem is ultra-processed food. Avoid ultra-processed food According to the British Medical Journal, ultra-processed foods are ‘formulations of food substances often modified by chemical processes and then assembled into ready-to-consume hyper-palatable food and drink
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products using flavours, colours, emulsifiers and . . . other cosmetic additives’. Ultra-processed foods include almost all types of junk food, such as chips, prepared desserts, fast food and soft drinks. As you can imagine, they are associated with
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very bad health outcomes, including insulin resistance, heart disease and fatty liver, which we’ll cover in Chapter 10. Ultra-processed foods are devoid of the nutrients needed by you and the fibre needed by your microbiome. They also commonly contain harmful food additives, high-dose fructose
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of eating that delivers all the essential nutrients, including amino acids, and the diet that makes you feel good. It’s a diet low in ultra-processed foods and therefore does not generate inflammation or cause insulin resistance. And if you’re prone to a mast cell or histamine response, your best diet
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Unless you’re fuelling post-training or actively trying to gain weight, there should be no reason to eat between meals. Consistently snacking, especially on ultra-processed foods, can increase insulin, create inflammation and put stress on the digestive and immune systems. Snacking in the evening is particularly harmful and the exact opposite
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juice or other liquid calories. SPECIAL TOPIC: TOP TWENTY SHOPPING LIST If you need help picturing what to eat, first picture yourself throwing away all ultra-processed foods, including chips, biscuits, ice cream, muesli bars, snack foods and sweetened beverages including fruit juice. If you can’t bear to throw those items out
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are not overly processed is harmless as long as you have good insulin sensitivity and exercise regularly. High-dose fructose from desserts (and especially from ultra-processed foods) is harmful if you have insulin resistance. SPECIAL TOPIC: WHAT IS FATTY LIVER? Like it sounds, fatty liver is the symptom of having fat in
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with patches, counselling, hypnosis or a stop-smoking program. Speak to your doctor. Avoid junk food. This is also excellent advice. Reduce your intake of ultra-processed food, including those containing high-dose fructose and trans fat. Exercise is another excellent recommendation. It reduces heart disease risk by lowering blood pressure and helping
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Raubenheimer, ‘Obesity: the protein leverage hypothesis’, Obesity Reviews, 6(2), May 2005, pp133–42. 126: According to the British Medical Journal . . .: MA Lawrence & PI Baker, ‘Ultra-processed food and adverse health outcomes’, BMJ, 365, May 2019, article l2289. 128: Some researchers even suggest that phytoestrogens . . .: IMCM Rietjens, J Louisse & K Beekmann, ‘The potential
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176, 199 magnesium 133–4 protein 122–5 sample menus 131–2 satiety 129 sensitivities/intolerances see food sensitivities/intolerances snacking 129–30 spelt 131 ultra-processed food 126–7 vegan or vegetarian 124 vegetables 127–9 yoghurt 115 digestive health 103–16 diet 113 fermented foods 115 gut microbiome 113–6 intestinal
Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs
by Johann Hari · 7 May 2024 · 315pp · 98,972 words
Death and Rebirth of Satiety The strange connection between processed food and the new drugs It is clear that this new kind of factory-assembled, ultra-processed food is triggering a frenzy in many of us that is like the one those rats experienced. Dunkin’ Donuts now sells enough doughnuts every day to
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the reasons I have been so damn hungry all my life—far more than my father, or grandfather, or great-grandfather. The first way that ultra-processed food undermines our satiety is strangely simple. You chew it less. It is, Tim explained, “generally very soft…It is adult baby food.” When you eat
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, I thought about his warning that, as a result of so many of these factors, we are now living in a “perfect obesity storm.” If ultra-processed food were a drug, he said, it would be taken off the market, because it would be regarded as too dangerous for people to use. * * * In
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go any further than that. So I force them to reflect. What are you doing with these new sensations? Are you choosing and consuming less ultra-processed foods? Are you having more fruits and vegetables? What is your pattern of eating? Are you having a more plant-based diet? Equally, are you more
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part because fast-food companies have consciously targeted our children. Today, 67 percent of the food calories consumed by kids in the US come from ultra-processed foods. Giles Yeo, the obesity expert at Cambridge University, told me: “When you have obesity as a child, it’s very difficult to become un-obese
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.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2332, as accessed September 21, 2023. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT consumed by kids in the US come from ultra-processed foods: L. Wang et al., “Trends in Consumption of Ultraprocessed Foods Among US Youths Aged 2–19 Years, 1999–2018,” JAMA (2021), 326(6), 519–30
Carbon: The Book of Life
by Paul Hawken · 17 Mar 2025 · 250pp · 63,703 words
symptoms of diabetes. Of course, none of the children in the nutrition study were offered candy, white bread, junk food, or soft drinks. Today, sugary, ultra-processed foods are freely available. And three fourths of the US population is overweight or obese, as are one billion people in the world. Food manufacturers and
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was scarce inland. Fat came from animals. Eons of scarcity from the distant past hardwire these desires. Big Food knows this and depends upon it. Ultra-processed foods are designed to lure, attract, and addict to make a profit. Their chemists make food ever more desirable: Doritos, Big Macs, and Oreos (there is
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now an Oreo breakfast cereal for children). Over 70 percent of the American diet is ultra-processed food. These include so-called natural foods such as vegan burgers, protein bars, and oat milk. Consumption of ultra-processed food is directly linked to depression, dementia, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, and cancer. Taste and
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resiliency. The human gut microbiota is crucial to physical and mental health and requires a diverse diet of nourishing, unprocessed food for maximum well-being. Ultra-processed food, sugar, additives, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, over-supplementation, rancid fats, alcohol, and drugs play havoc with the human gut. Analogous to human digestive dysfunction in the
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pesticides and fertilizers. Crops are not being developed for you and me. They are engineered to make money, to manufacture inexpensive starches and sugars for ultra-processed food, to provide feed for caged pigs, cattle, and chickens. Our knowledge about agriculture is based on observing and analyzing denatured soils low in biodiversity, bereft
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Treatment Targets?,” Diabetes & Metabolism Journal 44, no. 4 (2020): 509–28, doi:10.4093/dmj.2020.0058. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Today, sugary, ultra-processed food: Tobi Thomas, “More Than a Billion People Worldwide Are Obese, Research Finds,” The Guardian, February 29, 2004, theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/29/more-than
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, npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/02/26/172969363/how-the-food-industry-manipulates-taste-buds-with-salt-sugar-fat. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Ultra-processed foods are designed: Lelia Green, “No Taste for Health: How Tastes Are Being Manipulated to Favour Foods That Are Not Conducive to Health and Wellbeing,” M
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/C Journal 17, no. 1 (2014), doi.org/10.5204/mcj.785. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT ultra-processed food is directly linked: Huiping Li et al., “Association of Ultraprocessed Food Consumption with Risk of Dementia: A Prospective Cohort Study,” Neurology 99, no. 10 (September
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, 27–28 Firmenich, Alexa, 182 fish, 16, 62 insect population decline and, 135 insects and, 136 intelligence of, 97 fisheries, 5, 39 food. See also ultra-processed foods addiction to, 63, 64, 65 American diet, 62–63 in Americas, 47–48 for asthma, 60–62 of bees, 134–35 Big Food, 51, 63
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, 153, 154 as hunter-gatherers, 47 insects and, 130–31 language of, 118–27, 191 plants and, 96 prophecy of, 191–92 trees and, 180 ultra-processed foods in, 66–67 wildlands and, 175 industrial agriculture. See farmland; soil insecticides, 98, 138, 162 insects, 129–42. See also specific species climate crisis and
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-hsin Cheng, 140 Tulleken, Chris van, 52, 62–63 turtle doves, 172 Turtle Island, 67–68 turtles, light pollution and, 41 Tyndall, John, 13 U ultra-processed foods, 51–52, 57, 62–64 in Indigenous peoples, 66–67 soil for, 161, 162 Ultra-Processed People (Tulleken), 52 ultrasound, 99 United Nations Convention on
The No Need to Diet Book: Become a Diet Rebel and Make Friends With Food
by Plantbased Pixie · 7 Mar 2019 · 299pp · 81,377 words
with these essential nutrients. But we’ve now moved beyond simply having a dichotomy of ‘processed’ and ‘unprocessed’; we also have the rise of the ‘ultra-processed’ foods. There is no current consistent definition of what amount of processing makes a food ‘ultra-processed’. At what point does a food move from the
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’. It’s certainly not ‘posh’ food. But what about ‘wellness’ brands? Just like how with ‘junk food’ wellness brands are exempt, the same goes with ‘ultra-processed’ foods. Those energy balls technically count as ultra-processed too. Now obviously I’m not saying there’s something wrong with eating these foods, but there
The Lost Decade: 2010–2020, and What Lies Ahead for Britain
by Polly Toynbee and David Walker · 3 Mar 2020 · 279pp · 90,888 words
to be a reliable statistical guide. Kebab shops were not going out of business. More than half of the UK’s diet still consisted of ultra-processed food, high in sugar, salt and saturated fat. Across the Channel, about a seventh of the French diet was similarly constituted. Sustainable food consumption became fashionable
The Science and Technology of Growing Young: An Insider's Guide to the Breakthroughs That Will Dramatically Extend Our Lifespan . . . And What You Can Do Right Now
by Sergey Young · 23 Aug 2021 · 326pp · 88,968 words
October 26, 2017, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/looking-at-the-link-between-salt-and-heart-failure/. 20Anaïs Rico-Campà et al., “Association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and all cause mortality: SUN prospective cohort study,” BMJ 365 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1949. 21Bernard Srour et al
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., “Ultra-processed food intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: prospective cohort study (NutriNet-Santé),” BMJ 365 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1451. 22Jonathan Shaw, “A Diabetes
This Book Could Fix Your Life: The Science of Self Help
by New Scientist and Helen Thomson · 7 Jan 2021 · 442pp · 85,640 words
. Our food environment is awash with these kinds of protein decoys – crisps, instant noodles, crackers and so on. They are also known as ultra-processed foods. It’s no surprise that ultra-processed foods, designed by industry to be irresistible, are bad for us. They include delicious common fare such as pizzas, sweets, bread, cakes, mayonnaise
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when protein is diluted by fats and carbs our appetite for it overwhelms the mechanisms that normally tell us to stop eating fats and carbs. Ultra-processed foods also contain very little fibre, which is filling and so puts a brake on appetite. Their frequent flavouring with umami, which our protein appetite craves
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foods – plant-based items that are processed and refined as little as possible, such as legumes, fruits, vegetables, rice and wholegrain cereals. Most important, avoid ultra-processed foods. Keep them out of the house. You will eat them if they are there. They are designed to be irresistible. If you follow these steps
Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, and Optimizing Your Microbiome
by Will Bulsiewicz · 15 Dec 2020 · 431pp · 99,919 words
our microbiome, even if this is likely contributing to mass bacterial extinction. It comes as no surprise that every 10 percent increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with more than a 10 percent increased risk of developing cancer and a 14 percent risk of early death. So what happens when
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, and cereal. And that, my friends, is one of the main reasons that people may feel better when they go gluten-free. The elimination of ultra-processed foods, including refined carbs, is something that I support 100 percent. But does it make sense to categorically eliminate all gluten-containing products, or are we
Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--And How to Think Deeply Again
by Johann Hari · 25 Jan 2022 · 390pp · 120,864 words