in Extra Matter

Ultra-processed food: a round-up Not good for you

I feel Robert Shewfelt’s pain, I really do.

This past month has been a difficult one for defenders of processed food.

Four recently published studies make it abundantly clear that there is a link between how much ultra-processed food one eats and a variety of health outcomes. Note: I’m being very clear here about using “ultra-processed” and not the simpler “processed”, precisely because I think it is only if you willingly conflate the two that there’s anything worth defending. More on that later. In the meantime, the studies.

Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake started the ball rolling. Kevin Hall of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and his colleagues studied 10 men and 10 women for 4 weeks. For two weeks, half of them got a diet of mostly ultra-processed food while the others got a diet of mostly minimally processed food. The two groups then switched for the final two weeks. The diets were matched for calories, sugar, fat, fibre and macronutrients, and the people were free to eat as much or as little as they chose. People eating the ultra-processed diet ate about 500 calories a day more and, unsurprisingly to me, gained a bit of weight. Perhaps the main take-away is that calories do matter to weight gain, and that ultra-processed foods somehow make it easier to eat more calories.

Then there were two papers in the British Medical Journal looking at ultra-processed diets and health: Association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and all cause mortality: SUN prospective cohort study from Spain, and Ultra-processed food intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: prospective cohort study (NutriNet-Santé) from France.

Both were prospective cohort studies, meaning that people were enrolled into the study before any kind of investigation of their health. In both, participants reported their diet at regular intervals, and the researchers classified the foods they ate according to the four NOVA categories (which is where this discussion began). In both, participants were divided into four equal groups, based on the amount of ultra-processed foods in their diet. And in both, those who ate the most ultra-processed foods had poorer health outcomes than those who ate the least.

Specifically, in the Spanish study of almost 20,000 people, the top quartile was 1.62 times more likely to die from any cause than the bottom quartile. And the more ultra-processed food, the greater the chance of dying. The French study, of more than 105,000 people, looked at causes of death in more detail. Overall, those who ate lots of ultra-processed food were 1.14 times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease. Broken down, coronary heart disease deaths were 1.13 times more likely and cerebrovascular disease 1.11 times more likely in the top quartile of ultra-processed food eaters. In all cases, the researchers carried out various tests to ensure that the differences were not caused by some variable other than the amount of ultra-processed food in the diet.

And then, although it doesn’t seem to have featured (yet?) in Shewfelt’s mense horribilis, a large group of researchers centred on Darriush Mozaffarian’s group at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston published details of the Preventable Cancer Burden Associated With Poor Diet in the United States. They estimate that in 2015 around 80,000 new cases of cancer could be attributed to “suboptimal diet”. That represents about 5% of all new cases of cancer. Of the cancers, colorectal cancer accounts for almost 40% of all diet-related cancers. And the most important dietary factors were low intake of whole grains and dairy and high intake of processed meats. The authors don’t define processed meats; I imagine all would be classified as ultra-processed. They do point out that “[u]nlike the red meat consumption that showed a decreasing trend, the consumption of processed meats remained unchanged in the past 15 years. US adults consumed, on average, about 1 oz of processed meats daily, more than twice the recommended intake by the American Heart Association.”

As far as I am concerned, then, the evidence is that eating a lot of ultra-processed food is not good for you. Why is that so hard to accept?

Industrial strength

One reason might be that ultra-processed food is more profitable than minimally processed food, so one might expect those who profit by making the stuff to take an interest in muddying the waters. Mostly, that takes the form of criticising the NOVA classification, and only by implication the conclusions based upon it. At least some critics who take this tack have strong industry ties.

Robert Shewfelt adopts a similar approach, focussing for the most part on poking holes in his versions of the NOVA classification scheme. For example:

Remember, ultra-processing has nothing to do with how it has been processed or how much it has been processed. It is only about the ingredients.

from Is it time to discontinue the Nutrition Facts panel on processed food?

The beauty of this classification scheme is that it is easy to distinguish between an ultra-processed food from one that is either unprocessed or just processed. All one has to do is to be able to count to six.

from What makes a processed food an ultra-processed food? How dangerous to our health is ultra-processing?

On the contrary. “Ultra-processed” is all about how it has been processed or how much it has been processed. And nowhere in the most recent explanation of the NOVA food classification and the trouble with ultra-processing is the number of ingredients considered important. Likewise, the NOVA classification says nothing about whether ingredients are unpronounceable, which Shewfelt considers vitally important.

Possible causes

Of course, as any right-thinking statistics undergraduate will tell you, correlation is not causality, and the right thinking reasearchers agree. “Causality remains to be established,” say the French. Equally, there is clearly something about ultra-processed foods worth investigating. Or, as the Spanish put it: “Similar results in different populations, with different age ranges … and diverse methods for assessing dietary exposures support a causal association”.

There are hints at possible mechanisms. One review of the changing microbial landscape of Western society points out that “Western” diets tend to be associated with a gut microflora that is both less numerous and less diverse. It seems that fibre is an important food for “good” gut bacteria. Added sugar, by contrast, may be good for “bad” bacteria. A diet low in fibre and high in sugar could thus be a double whammy. Getting down to details, a group at Georgia State University, Atlanta, has shown that small amounts of two commonly used (and easy to pronounce) ingredients of ultra-processed foods, carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate‐80, speed the onset of colitis in mice that have a predisposition to the disease. In normal mice, the same ingredients cause low-grade inflamation and mild obesity. Gut microflora underpin the effects, which are not seen in germ-free animals, until they are given a faecal transplant. There are also hints that inflamation of the gut can interfere with leptin, the hormone that makes us feel full, so leading to overeating. I’m willing to bet that we will soon see lots more studies showing ill effects of both ultra-processed diets in general and specific ingredients in particular and, frankly, one doesn’t need a mechanism to act on an association. What’s the downside?

Moving on

Arguments about the cost of eating a minimally processed diet, in specie and in time, have a lot going for them. The NIH study that demonstrated weight gain on ultra-processed diets estimates that 2000 calories a day of the ultra-processed diet cost $106 a week compared to $151 for the minimally processed. That difference alone, to say nothing of lack of cooking skills and equipment, will make it hard for many people to abandon ultra-processed foods entirely. I’d like to see a more nuanced comparison, including the externalities associated with each type of diet and the role of subsidy in the cost of ultra-processed food. In other words, why is ultra-processed food both cheaper and more profitable?

In that connection, I was intrigued by an item in Jess Fanzo’s Food Bytes, in which she drew attention to a study that showed that “55% of the global rise in mean body mass index since the mid–1980s – and more than 80% in low- and middle-income regions – was due to increases in body mass index in rural areas”. Eyeballing the map she included, in Latin America, Africa and much of Asia, the excess weight is in the cities. In North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, rural areas predominate. As the study authors say: “In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women.” I wonder whether that reflects rural poverty and a reliance on ultra-processed foods.

But to return to Robert Shewfelt’s difficult month, I’m really pleased to see that he acknowledges that the NIH study “is an extremely well-planned and well-executed study”. On the weight aspect, he concludes that “[a] diet eliminating ultra-processed foods appears to be useful for losing weight”. So far so good. But he can’t leave it at that: “[S]uch an unprocessed diet may not be adequate to maintain weight in healthy individuals. A balanced diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins incorporated into a diet also containing ultra-processed foods could provide an appropriate blend of health and convenience for a modern family.”

Precisely. These days any diet in a halfway-advanced economy is bound to be mixed to some extent. What matters is the relative proportions.

I can’t leave it at that either. In bashing the use of NOVA classification, Shewfelt and a commenter somehow got hold of the idea that “whole milk [was] considered ultra-processed while 2% milk [was] considered unprocessed”. The NOVA categorisation is absolutely clear that “fresh or pasteurized milk” is “unprocessed or minimally processed”, so in an attempt to gain clarity I looked at the specific menus in more detail. On the ultra-processed diet, whole milk appears for breakfast on day 1 and partially skim milk (2% fat) for dinner on day 7. The unprocessed diet includes skim milk for lunch on days 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7, with partially skimmed for breakfast on day 3. At no point does the Hall et al. paper say that one diet was exclusively unprocessed or exclusively ultra-processed, only that they were designed to be “widely differing in the percentage of calories derived from ultra-processed versus unprocessed foods”. I’m thus not at all surprised to find milk, an unprocessed food, in two of the 21 “ultra-processed” meals.

And finally

What to do? A big problem is that ultra-processed foods are very precisely calibrated to make them absolutely yummy. Warning labels probably aren’t much help. Higher levels of general nutrition literacy (along with the prerequisites to make use of that learning) might be useful, though I am somewhat dubious. Most likely, it will take wholesale changes to the entire food system, for which, alas, there seems to be very little appetite among governments or their electorates.

p.s. I wish I could be in London on 2 July to hear Mike Gibney, of University College Dublin, give the UK’s Institute of Food Science and Technology lecture on Ultra-processed foods: The science and the policy. Gibney is not a fan of the NOVA classification, so it will be interesting to hear what he makes of the new results. I’m sure this time he will also be sure to declare any conflicts of interest. The website says the event will be “streaming live to various satellite receptions around the UK”. I guess that means the stream won’t be public. Perhaps they will publish a recording eventually. #IFSTlecture is the tag to watch.

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  • Robert Shewfelt
  • Jacob van Etten

Comment

Comment

  1. Hi Jeremy,

    I enjoyed your round-up and appreciate your concerns. I am coping with the pain and confess to being ultra-exhausted, but I will survive. I think that our dialog is producing fruit. I found three statements that you made in the round-up with which I can agree and two that trouble me. Let’s start with where we agree:

    1. the main take-away is that calories do matter to weight gain

    After reading so much about how some calories are more equal than others, i.e. processed calories are worse for us than unprocessed ones, it is nice to get some verification of the importance of calories. Basically, it would appear that the participants ate about 250 calories a day more than they needed to maintain weight on the ultra-processed diet and those on the unprocessed diet ate about 250 calories too few. You don’t seem to value maintenance of a healthy weight, but it is the goal of any of any weight program to achieve and then maintain a healthy weight.

    2. These days any diet in a halfway-advanced economy is bound to be mixed to some extent. What matters is the relative proportions.

    We also seem to agree that a balance of ultra-processed and with unprocessed/minimally processed foods is OK. I suspect that my ideal balance would look different from yours, but mixes are inevitable if not desirable. I would like to see fewer internet stories telling people to avoid ultra-processed products and using scare tactics against specific foods when they happen to be in the class, but I will not hold my breath! For example the NOVA group is still encouraging us to minimize processed and avoid ultra-processed food.

    3. Arguments about the cost of eating a minimally processed diet, in specie and in time, have a lot going for them.

    Access to fresh foods and the ability to prepare home-cooked meals is of real concern as described in depth in Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It. I plan on devoting the month of August to food access and such terms as food deserts, food swamps, food apartheid, and grocery gaps on my blog. September will feature a review of Pressure Cooker and a look at food slopes with an aim at where processed and ultra-processed food might fit into the cause of food justice.

    Here is where I have the most problems with the NOVA classification system and your take on it.

    1. And the more ultra-processed food the greater the chance of dying.

    This is a comment you make with respect to the BMJ study. I like that you point out the problem with confusing correlation and causation, but your statement above serves to imply causation. I think that there is cause to be concerned about the potential health effects of ultra-processed foods, but the category is so broad in the World Nutrition article (http://archive.wphna.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/WN-2016-7-1-3-28-38-Monteiro-Cannon-Levy-et-al-NOVA.pdf), that it is impossible to determine which ultra-processed foods are unhealthy and which ones are not, OR are they all unequally unhealthy? How is some single-mom with limited access to fresh foods, limited money to buy food and limited time to prepare it supposed to know which convenience foods available are least damaging to her children? More reason to clarify which subcategories of ultra-processed foods are more unhealthy than others.

    2. “Ultra-processed” is all about how it has been processed and how much it has been processed. And nowhere in the most recent explanation of the NOVA food classification and the trouble with ultra-processing is the number of ingredients considered important.

    Talk about bait and switch! It is apparent that the authors have responded to those critics of the NOVA classification scheme by changing the definitions. Political viewpoints and organisms evolve, but scientific definitions should not. It then becomes very difficult to compare one study with another. For the most part the classes remained relatively similar, the processes and classes of additives associated with ultra-processing are clarified, but the list of ultra-processed products has become smaller and much vaguer. A cynic would argue that by providing fewer targets, it makes it harder to challenge. BTW, Gibney has a recent article which describes the eight modifications of the classification scheme since 2009. It is true that the version I find at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/un-decade-of-nutrition-the-nova-food-classification-and-the-trouble-with-ultraprocessing/2A9776922A28F8F757BDA32C3266AC2A/core-reader and nicely summarized at https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova does not list the number of ingredients as you state. It only lists, however, five unacceptable processes—hydrogenation (no longer allowed in the United States), hydrolyzation, extrusion, moulding (does that mean no homemade cupcakes from scratch?) and pre-processing for frying (such as breading—again what about deep-fat frying at home?). Those represent very few of the myriad of processes used in food manufacturing. The article singles out 32 classes of additives that when present make it an ultra-processed product. I still believe that ultra-processing is primarily about ingredients, at least the types if not the number. Food formulation, which is mentioned in the latest NOVA classification, is the mixing of ingredients. I think the term ultra-formulation would be much more appropriate than ultra-processing. Somehow, distilled spirits no longer seem to be ultra-processed. I am now not sure if whole-grain breads or protein bars or a veggie pizza have been given a reprieve. In the World Nutrition version of NOVA, it appeared that fortification with vitamins and nutrients made a product ultra-processed, while the later version is less clear.

    Finally, a clarification on the milk issue:

    At no point does the Hall et al. paper say that one diet was exclusively unprocessed or exclusively ultra-processed.

    You accurately pointed out that the ultra-processed had partially skim milk (2% fat) for dinner on day 7 in addition to whole milk for breakfast on day 1. I missed that. Thanks for pointing that out. No whole milk was offered on the unprocessed diet, but they received skim milk five of the seven days, as you also indicate. In Table 1, however, the article states that 4.6% of the energy (calories) on the ultra-processed diet came from unprocessed foods (presumably from the two servings of milk) and that 0% of the energy (calories) in the unprocessed diet came ultra-processed foods. It is not clear where the 17% or so of the calories come from if they are neither unprocessed nor ultra-processed.

    I hope that this is not the end of our discussions, I welcome any comments from you and your readers or on my blogsite, https://processedfoodsite.com/ My latest post highlights seven statements I consider highly misleading about ultra-processed foods and three I consider rational. Note that I was operating on the earlier version of the classification scheme in my posts this week as were you in the initial newsletter on the topic.

    Buon appetito!

Webmentions

  • Ultra-processed food is bad for you: a summary of the recent evidence. eatthispodcast.com/ultra-processe…