How and Why to Quit Ultra-Processed Foods

By 2030, nearly half of US adults will be obese, researchers predicted in a study published Dec 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Many factors contribute to the rise in obesity, including the wide availability of ultra-processed foods and drinks, which are highly palatable, and therefore hard to stop consuming once we’ve started. Or, as another researcher described:

"[T]hrough feats of science and engineering, corporations have created foods that smack us right in the pleasure centers of the brain, and we continue to eat them even after we shouldn't,” said F. Perry Wilson, MD, an assistant professor at Yale Medical School, as quoted by Medscape. Wilson wrote a commentary to a second study that came out this past week, which found a diet high in ultra-processed foods to be associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. 

Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable and is primarily the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity. Contributing to this weight gain can be a diet high in ultra-processed foods. Although, interestingly the study found that: 

“Even if participants did not gain weight during follow-up, they were at risk of developing diabetes if their ultra-processed [food] consumption was higher,” researcher Bernard Srour, PharmD, MPH, PhD, told Medscape Medical News. The study was published Dec 16 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Ultra-processed foods have already been associated with other chronic diseases, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. Examples of ultra-processed foods include: sugar sweetened beverages; cookies; pastries; fried foods; energy drinks; and processed meats.

What This Means for You

If your diet is heavy with ultra-processed foods and drinks, start dialing back. It will be hard, because the foods seem addictive. 

In the JAMA study, participants at an average of 500 calories per day more when they were eating the ultra-processed diet, compared to when they were on the unprocessed diet. They also gained about a kilo on the ultra-processed diet and lost about kilo when on the unprocessed diet. 

I wrote before about the nature of these highly palatable foods. They trigger our brain’s rewards centers, so we want to keep eating and drinking. They lack fiber and other nutrients that tell our brains we are full. So you end up consuming far more calories with far less satiety. Basically, you’re getting less bang for your buck. 

How Do You Wean Off?

Most likely you aren’t going to be able to quit these foods cold turkey. If you can, more power to you. 

For those weaning off, start small. Replace one regular soda with a diet soda, then replace it with sparkling water, then with plain water. Replace one meal with a slightly less processed version of that meal. Eventually, replacing it with a non-processed meal in full.

Think of it like a continuum. And make each step, each change, just a little bit better along that continuum between ultra-processed and unprocessed.