"Literally hundreds of studies link ultra-processed foods to obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and overall mortality"

[Torn Mind]

THAT...is weird.

It leaves behind some residue or something, and it just doesn't make my throat feel comfortable. So if it isn't washed down with water, I'm not feeling the best.

 

[snoopy7548]

It leaves behind some residue or something, and it just doesn't make my throat feel comfortable. So if it isn't washed down with water, I'm not feeling the best.

That's what she said!

 

[Kaido]

CNN headline news today:

Ultraprocessed foods linked to ovarian and other cancer deaths, study finds

Key points:

"Each 10% increase in ultraprocessed food consumption was associated with a 2% increase in developing any cancer, and a 19% increased risk for being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, according to a statement issued by Imperial College London."

"Deaths from cancers also increased, the study found. For each additional 10% increase in ultraprocessed food consumption, the risk of dying from any cancer increased by 6%, while the risk of dying from ovarian cancer rose by 30%, according to the statement."

“The findings add to previous studies showing an association between a greater proportion of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in the diet and a higher risk of obesity, heart attacks, stroke, and type 2 diabetes”

Reiterating from last year's article:

'And there are “literally hundreds of studies (that) link ultraprocessed foods to obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and overall mortality,” Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University told CNN previously.'

I think I'm going to try to focus more on homemade foods in 2023 lol. The problem is that this group includes ALL THE STUFF I LOVE! "Overly processed foods include prepackaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza and ready-to-eat meals, as well as hot dogs, sausages, french fries, sodas, store-bought cookies, cakes, candies, doughnuts, ice cream and many more. “Ultra-processed foods are produced with industrially derived ingredients and often use food additives to adjust colour, flavour, consistency, texture, or extend shelf life,” said first author Dr. Kiara Chang, a National Institute for Health and Care Research fellow at Imperial College London’s School of Public Health, in a statement."

 

[Torn Mind]

CNN headline news today:

Ultraprocessed foods linked to ovarian and other cancer deaths, study finds

Key points:

"Each 10% increase in ultraprocessed food consumption was associated with a 2% increase in developing any cancer, and a 19% increased risk for being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, according to a statement issued by Imperial College London."

"Deaths from cancers also increased, the study found. For each additional 10% increase in ultraprocessed food consumption, the risk of dying from any cancer increased by 6%, while the risk of dying from ovarian cancer rose by 30%, according to the statement."

“The findings add to previous studies showing an association between a greater proportion of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in the diet and a higher risk of obesity, heart attacks, stroke, and type 2 diabetes”

Reiterating from last year's article:

'And there are “literally hundreds of studies (that) link ultraprocessed foods to obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and overall mortality,” Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University told CNN previously.'

I think I'm going to try to focus more on homemade foods in 2023 lol. The problem is that this group includes ALL THE STUFF I LOVE! "Overly processed foods include prepackaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza and ready-to-eat meals, as well as hot dogs, sausages, french fries, sodas, store-bought cookies, cakes, candies, doughnuts, ice cream and many more. “Ultra-processed foods are produced with industrially derived ingredients and often use food additives to adjust colour, flavour, consistency, texture, or extend shelf life,” said first author Dr. Kiara Chang, a National Institute for Health and Care Research fellow at Imperial College London’s School of Public Health, in a statement."

As usual, I take issue with the language used as usual with the words "processed". Because it obfuscates precisely what in the food could be the issue and how so.

The connection with the sugars and starches, and given the obfuscation, "science" is not willing to let the laypeople grasp the concept in full. Rather, they let the laypeople just think in terms of lay "intuition" so they don't develop a more practical framework to operate on. Rather, laypeople are left with inferring based on "feeling" of factories, machines, and other "cold" concepts, thus leaving open the pathway for unhealthy home cooking based on sugar and or starch bases like pasta.

There is a tight association between insulin and cancer...the term processed does not hint at that or that carbohydrates not fiber or resistant starch will cause its release.

Insulin enhances metabolic capacities of cancer cells by dual regulation of glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase M2 - Molecular Cancer

Background Insulin is tightly associated with cancer progression; however, mechanistic insights into such observations are poorly understood. Recent studies show that metabolic transformation is critical to cancer cell proliferation. Here, we attempt to understand the role of insulin in...

molecular-cancer.biomedcentral.com

 

[Oyeve]

My belief is eat WTF you want but eat whole oat bran once a day.

 

[igor_kavinski]

My belief is eat WTF you want but eat whole oat bran once a day.

Great advice! Seconded.

 

[Kaido]

As usual, I take issue with the language used as usual with the words "processed". Because it obfuscates precisely what in the food could be the issue and how so.

Excellent point! Good article on that here:

Let's Stop Calling Foods 'Ultra-Processed'

The definition of ultra-processed isn't based in nutrition at all.

lifehacker.com

 

[Torn Mind]

Excellent point! Good article on that here:

Let's Stop Calling Foods 'Ultra-Processed'

The definition of ultra-processed isn't based in nutrition at all.

lifehacker.com

Well, now it's nice to know the specific definition, which just so happens to never be provided in articles. (seems like only lawyers and politicians would provide such a thing to start a section)

But my issue is more of the effect of the lay reader, and in particular the affective effect of the term. The feelings conjured up by the term "processed" is one of factories, metal, and big business.

When in actuality, there primary culprits are likely carbohydrates, vegetable oil that is "toxified" by high heat, low quality meat, certain preservatives and well...scientists who perfected the taste to be addictive as possible. Homely home cooking can have such ingredients and help cause diabetes and/or heart disease.

In addition, detrimental food processing usually means removal of nutrients or doing something to cut costs. Something like nixtamalization is processing(the bases are chemicals, even if sourced from a natural plant; but it adds time and cost--hence "skipped" in western methods--and also releases inaccessible nutrients.

 

[Kaido]

Well, now it's nice to know the specific definition, which just so happens to never be provided in articles. (seems like only lawyers and politicians would provide such a thing to start a section)

But my issue is more of the effect of the lay reader, and in particular the affective effect of the term. The feelings conjured up by the term "processed" is one of factories, metal, and big business.

When in actuality, there primary culprits are likely carbohydrates, vegetable oil that is "toxified" by high heat, low quality meat, certain preservatives and well...scientists who perfected the taste to be addictive as possible. Homely home cooking can have such ingredients and help cause diabetes and/or heart disease.

In addition, detrimental food processing usually means removal of nutrients or doing something to cut costs. Something like nixtamalization is processing(the bases are chemicals, even if sourced from a natural plant; but it adds time and cost--hence "skipped" in western methods--and also releases inaccessible nutrients.

When I studied nutrition (ultimately decided to go into IT tho), I did a special focus on sugar. They found that certain people were more genetically prone to carb addiction, which came in 3 basic flavors:

1. Candy & soda & treats
2. Bread & other baked goods
3. Pasta

People don't normally associate bread & pasta with sugar addiction, but it's all a carb addiction at the end of the day. What's interesting is that they also found 2 other flavors of carb addiction:

1. Alcoholics
2. Smokers

Alcohol addiction had the double whammy of carbs (ish) & the buzz that comes from drinking. In America, cigarettes can legally be up to 20% sugar, which is interesting, because you never see anyone addicting to nicotine gum or nicotine patches! Plus nicotine speeds up the metabolism by increasing the amount of calories the body uses at rest by up to 7% to 15%. A really good book on the practical effects of sugar & self-treatments of sugar addictions is "Potatoes, not Prozac":

Amazon.com

One of the big breakthroughs in sugar management was Dr. Sarah Hallberg's TED Talk on reversing Type II diabetes, which basically amounted to limited carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or less per day, which had many patients see tremendous results within just 3 days:

My own brief history is that I was a pretty skinny dude growing up, then got married to a good cook & got a cubicle job & blew up 50 pounds. I had NO IDEA how to manage it, so I took the bro-science route & ate a lot of plain chicken, broccoli, sweet potato, and brown rice. It worked, but it definitely wasn't sustainable, so I fell of the wagon & blew up again. Then I discovered macros. Ultimately, I went from 260 to 180 & lost 80 pounds, and have been able to sustainably keep it off by generally sticking with macros:

Macros tutorial

I wish I had had this information growing up, because there's so much FUD & marketing haze out there that it can be REALLY hard to get the clear scoop on how our bodies work in terms of bodyweight management & high energy from food! So many of the health problems in our society would be vastly reduced or even completely eliminated by adopting a macros-based approach, especially with a focus on carb management & whole foods!

Food-wise, I suspect that food processing agents are going to be the new tobacco in the next few decades...we're going to find out that there are a lot of long-term consequences to all of the garbage we put in food. Right now, we're just on the cusp of learning the effects:

New Study Alarms: Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to Increased Risk of Cancer & Death

Higher consumption of ultra-processed foods may be linked to an increased risk of developing and dying from cancer, a new study suggests. Researchers from Imperial College London’s School of Public Health have produced the most comprehensive assessment to date of the association between ultra-pro

scitechdaily.com

And to your point, even the researches pointed that out:

"The researchers note that their study is observational, so does not show a causal link between ultra-processed foods and cancer due to the observational nature of the research. More work is needed in this area to establish a causal link."

I really like Michael Pollan's approach:

1. Eat (real) food
2. Mostly plants
3. Not too much

One of my personal goals this year is to do more cooking at home and use more whole & real ingredients as possible. This can spiral into hair-splitting semantics, because there's GMOs, pesticides, organic food labeling is all BS, apples are covered in wax, etc., but mostly I'm aiming to use ingredients to make more food at home that doesn't contain a laundry list of processed chemicals haha. Although resisting the urge to pick up a King-sized Snickers ice cream bar at the gas station on the way home can be preeeeetty hard lol!

 

[Torn Mind]

When I studied nutrition (ultimately decided to go into IT tho), I did a special focus on sugar. They found that certain people were more genetically prone to carb addiction, which came in 3 basic flavors:

1. Candy & soda & treats
2. Bread & other baked goods
3. Pasta

Genetically prone and fostered carb addiction, also neglected because of not meeting the usual medical thresholds...that can describe Eastern Asians or Indians(from India).

As an n=1, I do not have the tendencies that many "unhealthy" people have. Blood pressure always low, aversion to salt to the point of possible deficiency in sodium(I really can skip it completely), low weight. Nevertheless, the foods still have the same effect as those who do put on the pounds, and there's the familial cancer risk, which may actually be more diet than genetics.
Thus, I can optimize to focus on teeth/bone, avoiding fatty liver, and avoiding cancer of the colon. So, I basically limit carbs and analyze micronutrient comprehensiveness.

Just looking at the lists of food at places like MyFoodData, it seems that "filtration creatures or organs" provide micros usually only present in plants, such the liver and mollusks like mussel.
Fatty fish also provide a comprehensive set of vitamins and minerals. Red salmon has astaxanthin
Bacterial fermentation can provide nutrients like vitamin K2.
Olive Oil is a helluva oil.
"Start of life" foods like eggs and nuts, are also rather "comprehensive" in micros.
Personal opinon: Pastured-raised are the best eggs to eat in terms of taste and benefit to society.


Fatty liver is something that bloods can't detect until enzymes start getting dumped into the bloodstream. Then there's the matter of getting a doc that isn't conventionally "corporate or all business" in which they tell you we'll monitor but things are a-ok even with elevated levels.

People don't normally associate bread & pasta with sugar addiction, but it's all a carb addiction at the end of the day. What's interesting is that they also found 2 other flavors of carb addiction:

1. Alcoholics
2. Smokers

Alcohol addiction had the double whammy of carbs (ish) & the buzz that comes from drinking. In America, cigarettes can legally be up to 20% sugar, which is interesting, because you never see anyone addicting to nicotine gum or nicotine patches! Plus nicotine speeds up the metabolism by increasing the amount of calories the body uses at rest by up to 7% to 15%. A really good book on the practical effects of sugar & self-treatments of sugar addictions is "Potatoes, not Prozac":

Amazon.com

Well, I didn't know that sugar is a component of cigarettes...even all those DARE campaigns never mentioned that...

One of the big breakthroughs in sugar management was Dr. Sarah Hallberg's TED Talk on reversing Type II diabetes, which basically amounted to limited carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or less per day, which had many patients see tremendous results within just 3 days:

My own brief history is that I was a pretty skinny dude growing up, then got married to a good cook & got a cubicle job & blew up 50 pounds. I had NO IDEA how to manage it, so I took the bro-science route & ate a lot of plain chicken, broccoli, sweet potato, and brown rice. It worked, but it definitely wasn't sustainable, so I fell of the wagon & blew up again. Then I discovered macros. Ultimately, I went from 260 to 180 & lost 80 pounds, and have been able to sustainably keep it off by generally sticking with macros:

Macros tutorial

I wish I had had this information growing up, because there's so much FUD & marketing haze out there that it can be REALLY hard to get the clear scoop on how our bodies work in terms of bodyweight management & high energy from food! So many of the health problems in our society would be vastly reduced or even completely eliminated by adopting a macros-based approach, especially with a focus on carb management & whole foods!

Food-wise, I suspect that food processing agents are going to be the new tobacco in the next few decades...we're going to find out that there are a lot of long-term consequences to all of the garbage we put in food. Right now, we're just on the cusp of learning the effects:

New Study Alarms: Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to Increased Risk of Cancer & Death

Higher consumption of ultra-processed foods may be linked to an increased risk of developing and dying from cancer, a new study suggests. Researchers from Imperial College London’s School of Public Health have produced the most comprehensive assessment to date of the association between ultra-pro

scitechdaily.com

And to your point, even the researches pointed that out:

"The researchers note that their study is observational, so does not show a causal link between ultra-processed foods and cancer due to the observational nature of the research. More work is needed in this area to establish a causal link."

I really like Michael Pollan's approach:

1. Eat (real) food
2. Mostly plants
3. Not too much

One of my personal goals this year is to do more cooking at home and use more whole & real ingredients as possible. This can spiral into hair-splitting semantics, because there's GMOs, pesticides, organic food labeling is all BS, apples are covered in wax, etc., but mostly I'm aiming to use ingredients to make more food at home that doesn't contain a laundry list of processed chemicals haha. Although resisting the urge to pick up a King-sized Snickers ice cream bar at the gas station on the way home can be preeeeetty hard lol!

It seems that a crop of medical pros are independently from each other converging some similar general conclusions. William Davis authored Undoctored, and I read a bit of the book after checking it out from the library this Saturday. Ford Brewer runs a youtube channel. Jason Fung is/was a nephrologist and has a few books out. Susan Wolver runs a practice. You might want to look into their content.