These foods are generally understood to be mass-produced with some \u2014 or a lot \u2014 of industrially processed ingredients. \u201cThey\u2019re basically industrial formulations,\u201d Perelman said. \u201cThey contain ingredients you wouldn\u2019t find in a typical kitchen \u2014 things like emulsifiers, colorings, flavor enhancers, bulking agents, gels. And the other thing is that ultra-processed foods tend to be, in the majority of cases, higher in saturated fat, higher in salt and higher in sugar \u2014 which are the three things we know we should eat less of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monteiro and his colleagues developed a system for classifying food, called NOVA, that is used widely for scientific studies and by dietitians and nutritionists. It groups foods into four categories:<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: Examples are fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, poultry, pasta, plain yogurt and coffee.<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Processed culinary ingredients: These include sugar, honey, maple syrup, vegetable oils, butter and vinegar.<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Processed foods: Examples are salted nuts, cured meat, canned fish, canned vegetables, most cheeses and freshly made bread (such as from a local bakery).<\/p>\n
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\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ultra-processed foods: Examples are commercially produced breads, most breakfast cereals, flavored yogurts, hot dogs, frozen meals, potato chips, soft drinks and candy bars.<\/p>\n
3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Obesity, anxiety, death: The adverse health effects are extreme, varied<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like the industry is trying to kill us,\u201d Perelman said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to make food more affordable, more convenient, tastier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, she notes, dozens of studies have provided evidence suggesting that high ultra-processed food consumption is associated with a range of adverse health outcomes, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, depression, anxiety, cancer and mortality from all causes.<\/p>\n
A 2024 review<\/a> of 45 metanalyses, covering nearly 10 million study participants, found \u201cconvincing\u201d evidence that a diet high in ultra-processed foods increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 50% and the risk of anxiety by 48%. It found \u201chighly suggestive\u201d evidence that greater consumption of these foods increases the risk of death from heart disease by 66%, the risk of obesity by 55%, sleep disorders by 41%, Type 2 diabetes by 40%, early death from any cause by 21% and depression by 20%.<\/p>\n A study<\/a> published in 2022 in The BMJ found that men who ate the most ultra-processed foods had a 29% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n Research has shown that eating ultra-processed foods, which are generally low in fiber, is detrimental to gut health. This is because they tend to be easily digested, their components absorbed quickly into the bloodstream, Perelman said. The microbes in our large intestine eat fiber and scraps of food, like pieces of partially digested nuts that make it through the stomach and small intestine. Without them, \u201cthe microbes starve,\u201d she said. Or some may start eating the organ\u2019s mucus lining, which serves as a protective barrier. This increases the gut\u2019s susceptibility to pathogens and inflammation.<\/p>\n Additives can also harm gut health. Emulsifiers, which are used in food manufacturing to combine substances that would normally separate, can disrupt the gut microbiome and weaken the intestinal barrier. In one randomized, controlled study<\/a> published in Gastroenterology in 2022, participants who ate food with a widely used emulsifier, carboxymethylcellulose, experienced alterations in their intestinal microbiota; depletion of health-promoting small molecules found in the fecal metabolome, which provides a snapshot of metabolic activity in the gut; and increased stomach discomfort after eating. In two of the participants, microbiota invaded the normally sterile inner mucus layer of the large intestine, the study said. Such encroachment is a central feature of gut inflammation.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The real sneaky trick: They\u2019re designed to make you want more<\/p>\n Scientists working on formulations for highly processed foods are really good at their jobs, Perelman said. \u201cThey formulate the taste of the food to what is known as the \u2018bliss point\u2019\u201d \u2014 the precise combination of sugar, salt and fat to maximize palatability, which encourages overconsumption, she said. \u201cWhen you hear a commercial about how you can\u2019t eat just one, they mean it. You know those ranch-flavored chips? They definitely trigger some of those neurotransmitters that are making you, like, \u2018Oh, my God, this is delicious.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When Monteiro, the epidemiologist, and his colleagues analyzed data on Brazilian household food expenditures they observed a paradox: As obesity was dramatically rising, Brazilians were buying less salt, sugar, and cooking fats and oils. They discovered that people were replacing home-cooked meals with ready-made foods, drinks and snacks that were high in fat, salt and sugar. They hypothesized that these foods, propelled by aggressive marketing and affordability, were displacing meals prepared with fresh ingredients. With the added flavors, the foods were designed to be hyperpalatable \u2014 even habit-forming \u2014 but less satiating, they said.<\/p>\n In a small, randomized study<\/a> published in Cell Metabolism in 2019, researchers found that over two weeks, participants assigned to an ultra-processed diet ate about 500 more calories per day and gained about 2 pounds more than those on the unprocessed diet.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A super-surprising caveat: Not all ultra-processed food is unhealthy<\/p>\n Once a whole food is manipulated in some fashion \u2014 through the addition of salt or heat (our ancestors are believed to have started cooking food some 1.8 million years ago) \u2014 it has been processed, Perelman said.<\/p>\n But where minimal processing ends and processing begins, as well as where processing ends and ultra-processing begins, is a matter of debate \u2014 as is whether certain highly processed foods actually qualify as unhealthy, in the sense they should be consumed infrequently. \u201cIt\u2019s all semantics, and I think that\u2019s part of the problem,\u201d Perelman said. \u201cIt\u2019s one reason this field is so hard to study; we don\u2019t quite agree on what to call things.\u201d<\/p>\n The question of how to label certain foods points to what some food scientists contend is a flaw in NOVA \u2014 namely, that the categories are oversimplified. They argue that some foods could fall into two of them, depending on who is making the assessment. Other criticisms are that NOVA focuses too heavily on processing and not enough on nutritional value, undermining efforts to improve global nutrition through fortified, shelf-stable products, especially in low-income regions.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,\u201d Perelman said. \u201cHighly processed food has helped us feed a lot more people and reach populations that wouldn\u2019t otherwise get a lot of food. We need to learn what it is about the ultra-processed foods that is harming our health.\u201d<\/p>\n Perelman believes NOVA is an important heuristic, given that higher consumption of highly processed foods is clearly associated with a higher risk of adverse health outcomes. But she said it might be useful to subdivide the ultra-processed-foods category to acknowledge that some are healthier than others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \n What the Science Says: Red light therapy\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \n What the Science Says: Gut-brain connection\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \n What the Science Says: Microplastics and our health\n <\/p>\n![\"whats-the-deal-with-red-light-therapy\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/whats-the-deal-with-red-light-therapy.png\" "\\"Untitled")
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