Newsletter #172: Delicious (But Not So Nutritious) Ultra-Processed Foods 🍔
Good morning, humanOS friends! This week, we returned to the topic of the super tasty - and super unhealthy - ultra-processed foods.
We've talked about this before, but here is a quick bit of context. Back in 2009, nutrition scientist Carlos Monteiro wrote a commentary in which he broke foods into categories based not by nutrients, or even by calories, but rather by processing. More specifically, he suggested that foods should be classified by the “type, intensity and purpose of food processing,” since obviously some forms of processing are perfectly fine (and maybe even in some cases health-promoting).Ultra-processed foods are made from substances extracted and reconstituted from whole foods, but usually stripped of nutrients and combined with additives to make them edible, palatable, and habit-forming. Think doughnuts, cookies, hot dogs, etc.

Since that paper was published, lots of studies have since been conducted using this novel classification system. Perhaps the most compelling recent example was an inpatient clinical trial from Kevin Hall and colleagues at the NIH. Subjects continuously resided at a metabolic ward for a month, where they were randomly assigned to receive either an ultra-processed diet or a minimally processed diet for two week intervals, followed by the alternate diet for the last two weeks. They were served huge portions and allowed to eat as much of the food as they wanted. Sure enough, when volunteers ate the ultra-processed diet, they consumed an average of 508 additional calories per day, and (unsurprisingly) had gained weight after two weeks on the regimen.
Ultra-processed foods make up a significant portion of the modern diet, especially among children, and trials like Hall’s suggest that they are a likely contributing factor to the obesity epidemic. But these sorts of foods may be linked to other health problems as well, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and even DNA damage. To learn more, scroll on down 👇🏼
This Week’s Research Highlights
🍟 Ultra-processed foods make up a major chunk of total intake for children - and it’s only going up.
Researchers from Tufts University analyzed trends in food consumption among American children from 1999 to 2018 using data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). They determined that ultra-processed food had risen from 61% up to 67% of total caloric intake in the diets of children and adolescents since 1999, while calories from unprocessed or minimally processed foods decreased from 28.8% to 23.5%. The biggest contributor to this shift was ready-to-eat foods like takeout and frozen pizza, going from 2.2% to 11.2% of calories. On the brighter side, calories from sugar-sweetened beverages dropped from 10.8% to 5.3% of overall calories.
🧬 Higher ultra-processed food intake is associated with more DNA damage in healthy adolescents.
Researchers analyzed ultra-processed food intake and its association with urinary levels of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a biomarker of DNA oxidative damage, in 139 healthy adolescents in Iran. Usual dietary intake was measured using a 168-item validated food frequency questionnaire, and the teens were divided into three categories based on how much ultra-processed food they habitually consumed. Adolescents in the highest tertile of ultra-processed food consumption had a significantly higher mean level of urinary 8-OHdG/creatinine in comparison to the lower tertiles. This link remained after adjustment for potential confounding variables, including total energy intake, sex, age, body mass index, obesity, and physical activity.
🍩 Intake of ultra-processed food is associated with greater risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Researchers analyzed data on dietary intake and health outcomes from an international sample of 116,087 adults living in 21 different countries. Participants were enrolled in the study between 2003 and 2016, and were assessed at least every three years. The researchers determined that higher intake of ultra-processed food was associated with greater risk of developing IBD over the study period. And the more that the participants ate, the greater the increased risk. For instance, compared to those who consumed less than one serving of ultra-processed food daily, subjects who ate 1-4 servings per day had a 67% increased risk of IBD, and subjects who consumed 5 or more servings daily had an 82% increased risk.
👴🏾 Ultra-processed foods are linked to higher risk of hypertension, and Black people may be particularly vulnerable to this effect.
Researchers examined data on food consumption and blood pressure readings from nearly 6000 participants in the ongoing Reasons for Geographic and Racial Disparities in Stroke (REGARDS) study. They calculated total ultra-processed calories consumed, and broke down the subjects into four quartiles, from the least to the most ultra-processed foods eaten. The research team found that Black adults who were in the top quartile for total ultra-processed food consumption were 55% more likely than white adults in the same quartile to have incident hypertension.
💉 Ultra-processed food consumption is associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
Researchers assessed data from 20,060 participants who were followed for a median of twelve years. Subjects were categorized into tertiles of ultra-processed food consumption adjusted for total energy intake. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, including body mass index, it was determined that those in the highest tertile of intake had a 53% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This finding is in agreement with a prior study in Canadian adults, which found that adults in the highest tertile of ultra-processed food consumption had 37% higher odds of diabetes, and a similar UK study which found that the highest quartile of intake was linked to a 44% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Random Trivia Question of the Week
🤔 How do male wolf spiders communicate their interest to females?
💡 ANSWER
Videos We Loved This Week
- Kevin Hall: Ultra-Processed Foods. Via ILSI Global.
- Jeffrey M Zacks: Strange continuity: Why our brains don’t explode at film cuts. Via Aeon.
Products We Are Enjoying
Flora
Flora is a super simple, free productivity app that mashes up traditional time management techniques with digital farm simulation. The app utilizes the Pomodoro strategy of working in short 25-minute bursts punctuated by 5-minute breaks (but you can customize the time intervals to whatever you prefer).

Basically, whenever you want to focus on a specific task, you plant a flower or tree or some other kind of flora, and as you are working, that plant grows. But if you pick up the phone and leave the app, the plant will begin to wither. Over time, your garden will become lusher and more diverse. You can also tag your plants with specific to-do items to help you follow through and track your progress.
humanOS Catalog Feature of the Week
Thank you, as always, for reading, and see y'all next week!