From anxiety to cancer, the evidence against ultra-processed food piles up
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A study points to the potential harm of eating too many ultra processed foods. It links those foods to an increased risk of diseases and health conditions. More than half the calories Americans consume each day come from those foods, which are often high in salt and sugar and fat, and some other stuff, as we're going to hear from NPR's Allison Aubrey. Allison, good morning.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What kind of food are we talking about?
AUBREY: Stuff you buy in the grocery store, things that have extra ingredients you wouldn't find in your own kitchen - things like hydrolyzed protein, additives such as artificial colors, flavor enhancers, emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, and thickeners. So these are highly refined foods - think breads, fast food, sugary drinks, cereals, cookies and other packaged snacks.
INSKEEP: OK, and what does the study show about them?
AUBREY: It shows that people who consume a lot of these foods have higher risks of developing more than 30 different conditions. This is based on a big analysis where researchers pooled data from dozens of studies that included millions of people. The study's senior author, Wolfgang Marx of Deakin University in Australia, told me one of the things that stood out was with mood and mental health disorders.
WOLFGANG MARX: Where we see a 30% reduced risk of depressive symptoms. With a healthy diet like a Mediterranean style diet, we're seeing a roughly 20 to 30% increased risk for diets at a high in these ultra processed foods.
AUBREY: They also found strong evidence linking high intake of these foods to metabolic conditions, including diabetes, obesity and an increased risk of several different types of cancer.
INSKEEP: What explains those risks?
AUBREY: There are a lot of different potential explanations. The simplest one is that some of the most common ultra processed foods - these are really ubiquitous in our food supply I just mentioned, like fast food, sugary drinks, snacks - they tend to be high in salt, sugar, saturated fat. I spoke to Dr. Jeff Meyerhardt. He's an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which is a sponsor of NPR. He treats colorectal cancer, which is on the rise.
JEFF MEYERHARDT: One mechanism of how ultra processed food can be associated with colorectal cancer is again through leading to increasing weight, increasing risk of diabetes, and other metabolic syndrome factors closely tied to colorectal cancer.
AUBREY: And given that multiple studies show high consumption of ultra processed food is linked to increased risk of colorectal cancer, this is concerning.
INSKEEP: Well, given that, is there any way to persuade people to cut back?
AUBREY: A panel of advisors is currently evaluating all of the latest diet and nutrition studies as part of a process to update the dietary guidelines. That's one place where recommendations could be made, maybe next year. On the regulatory side, the Food and Drug Administration is moving ahead on front of packaged labeling that will flag foods that contain high amounts of sodium, sugar, saturated fat. I spoke to the FDA's Jim Jones about that. He's deputy commissioner on human foods.
JIM JONES: By focusing on sodium, saturated fat, added sugars, we will also likely make progress on reducing consumption of ultra processed food, because there is a high correlation between those three ingredients and ultra processed food.
AUBREY: He says there's still more research needed to better understand, Steve, the kind of mechanisms by which ultra processed foods could be harming us.
INSKEEP: OK. For some reason, I'm no longer hungry. Allison, thanks so much.
AUBREY: I understand.
INSKEEP: Really appreciate it. NPR's Allison Aubrey.
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