Marketing health foods is a multibillion-dollar business. But they may not be as wholesome as you think. Here's how to spot ultra-processed foods.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:01 Ultra-processed foods make up more than half
00:03 of the calories that Americans consume,
00:06 but they're actually quite dangerous for your health
00:08 and potentially highly addictive.
00:11 And I'm not just talking about donuts and pizza here.
00:15 There are actually a lot of ultra-processed foods
00:17 that we mistake for healthy ones.
00:19 I'm Mia de Graaf, I'm a health editor at Business Insider,
00:23 and I'm going to be showing you how to tell
00:25 what's an ultra-processed food from what isn't.
00:29 Processed food is something that has been altered
00:32 in some way before it lands in your grocery cart.
00:35 So that's canned tomatoes or cheese or dried pasta.
00:40 Ultra-processed food is something that looks very unlike
00:43 anything you would have in your kitchen at home.
00:46 It's had different ingredients added to it
00:48 to make it more shelf-stable.
00:50 So those might be preservatives or sugar.
00:53 It's also gone through different processes
00:54 like hydrogenation, which also help it last longer.
00:58 That's things like soda or candy bars or chips.
01:02 So the problem with ultra-processed foods
01:04 on a nutritional level is that the processes
01:07 that they go through break down what's known
01:10 as the food matrix within the food.
01:12 So the nutrients that are in the original food
01:15 have gone through so many things
01:17 that mean that they've deteriorated.
01:19 So if I'm at home, I slice up a potato
01:23 and I fry it and turn it into chips.
01:26 The food matrix within that chip
01:28 is going to be far more intact
01:30 than if I buy a packet of chips.
01:33 Those chips have gone through so many different processes
01:36 and have different chemicals that make them
01:39 more shelf-stable, make them last longer.
01:41 As a result, they're lacking in the nutrients inside.
01:44 One of the biggest issues with ultra-processed food
01:48 is the lack of fiber.
01:50 When you have a good amount of fiber in your body,
01:53 your body naturally produces this hormone called GLP-1.
01:57 That is the hormone that weight loss drugs
01:59 like Ozempic try to mimic.
02:01 They are literally called GLP-1 agonists.
02:04 So when you're eating a lot of ultra-processed foods
02:06 and you are lacking in that fiber,
02:08 that's going to disrupt your body's natural cycle
02:11 of producing this hormone that keeps you fuller for longer
02:14 and makes you not want to snack as much.
02:17 That's why ultra-processed foods are linked
02:19 with diabetes and heart disease and obesity.
02:23 A study in 2019 by the National Institute of Health
02:26 provided a bit of a watershed moment
02:29 in terms of our understanding of ultra-processed foods.
02:31 So they had some people eating whole foods,
02:34 some people eating ultra-processed foods.
02:36 They matched it perfectly for carbohydrates,
02:39 fiber, sugars, everything,
02:41 and you could eat as much as you wanted.
02:43 At the end of the study,
02:45 they found that the people on the ultra-processed food
02:47 had eaten 500 calories more a day
02:51 than the people eating whole foods.
02:53 That is, I cannot emphasize enough, a huge finding.
02:57 And it led the researchers to find that
02:59 ultra-processed foods do seem to incentivize you
03:03 to eat more.
03:04 Other studies have found that ultra-processed foods
03:07 may be linked to anxiety and depression and sleep problems.
03:11 But the reality is you can't cut these foods out.
03:14 If you speak to a nutritionist,
03:16 they will tell you that they eat ultra-processed foods too.
03:19 They're unavoidable.
03:20 But the key is thinking about eating them in moderation.
03:23 So here are some foods that we often mistake for healthy,
03:27 but they're actually ultra-processed.
03:30 So let's start with juice.
03:31 It has vitamin C, antioxidants, polyphenols,
03:36 these things which are all good for your heart
03:38 and for your body.
03:39 But the problem with juice is that it is ultra-processed
03:42 and it's really lacking in fiber.
03:45 Once you've juiced, say, an orange,
03:48 you're losing all of those fibrous materials
03:50 that would be fortifying your body
03:52 and you're just extracting the sugars.
03:55 So you're getting a ton of glucose and a ton of sugar,
03:58 and then that can cause your blood sugar to spike.
04:01 If you're looking for a healthy alternative to juice,
04:03 fruit is really your best option.
04:05 That's where you're getting
04:06 the original source of nutrients.
04:08 But above all, just drink it in moderation.
04:11 Next is granola bars.
04:14 Granola bars are considered healthy
04:16 because they're often made with oats and nuts
04:19 and dried fruit and seeds.
04:22 These are all things which are really good for your heart
04:24 and sometimes also good for your digestion.
04:26 The problem with granola bars is that they're often made
04:29 with a ton of sugar.
04:31 If you look on the back of a granola bar label,
04:34 very often they'll contain more than 15 grams of sugar.
04:38 That's four teaspoons.
04:40 So if you're going to eat a granola bar,
04:42 what I would recommend is to look on the label
04:45 and check that there is at least three grams of fiber,
04:49 at least five grams of protein,
04:51 and less than 10 grams of sugar.
04:54 Alternatively, you could eat a handful of nuts,
04:57 which is going to keep you fuller for longer
05:00 and give you a burst of energy.
05:01 Or you could try and make your granola bars at home.
05:05 Another one is sports drinks like Gatorade.
05:09 The idea is that after a workout
05:11 or if you're sick, you're just thirsty for whatever reason,
05:15 that you would drink, say, a Gatorade,
05:17 and it contains so many electrolytes
05:19 that it will replenish the sodium
05:21 in the water that you've lost.
05:22 The reason they're unfortunately not as healthy as we think
05:26 is that these drinks often contain more sugar,
05:30 other sweeteners, and food coloring
05:32 than anything else in the bottle.
05:34 It also contains dextrose, which is a sugar substitute,
05:38 which is linked to increased risk of diabetes and obesity.
05:42 If you're not an athlete
05:43 or if you're not dripping with sweat after your workout,
05:46 you probably don't need these drinks.
05:48 So drinking water and eating a nutritious meal
05:52 is gonna get you that same hydration.
05:54 Moving on, we have gluten-free foods.
05:58 The issue with gluten-free food is that, again,
06:00 these are highly processed foods.
06:02 They often replace gluten with starchy ingredients
06:06 like tapioca starch and rice flour and corn starch,
06:10 which can raise your blood sugar really fast.
06:13 If you don't have a gluten sensitivity
06:16 or you don't have celiac disease,
06:18 there is no reason for you to avoid gluten.
06:21 If you're gonna buy gluten-free foods,
06:24 just look at the label and make a decision
06:26 about how you want to consume it.
06:28 Look at how much sugar is in there,
06:29 what kinds of sugar, what kinds of starch,
06:32 and then make a decision
06:34 about what else you're going to eat
06:35 with that gluten-free item.
06:37 That might help you to balance out the sugars
06:40 and those types of starch that are in that ingredient.
06:44 Cold cuts, like deli meats, are also ultra-processed.
06:48 Throw them in a sandwich,
06:49 that's a high dose of protein and zinc and iron,
06:53 but they are also very high in saturated fats and sodium.
06:58 In 2015, the WHO classified ultra-processed meat
07:03 as carcinogenic.
07:04 That includes cold cuts.
07:06 When you manufacture ultra-processed meat,
07:09 they inject a chemical called nitrites or nitrates
07:14 to make it last longer and be more stable.
07:16 In your body, that converts into something called NOC,
07:21 and that can damage the DNA and the cells in your bowel,
07:26 which can increase your risk of colorectal cancer.
07:29 So another food that's ultra-processed
07:31 is plant-based meat replacements.
07:34 One of the benefits is that they cut out a kind of chemical
07:38 that's naturally occurring in something like red meat
07:41 called hyan, which can increase your risk
07:43 of cardiovascular disease.
07:45 Just because something is plant-based,
07:47 it can still be unhealthy.
07:49 Sugar, for example, is plant-based.
07:52 The other thing is that with a lot of these foods,
07:54 they inject a lot of sodium to replicate the flavor,
07:57 so often they're very high in salt.
08:01 So here's how to decide whether you should buy
08:04 an ultra-processed food or not.
08:06 Read the label.
08:07 Something that nutrition experts do
08:09 is they follow the 5/20 rule.
08:11 So that's less than 5% of a bad thing,
08:14 more than 20% of a good thing.
08:17 You're looking for more fiber, less sodium,
08:21 less added sugars.
08:22 Try to look at if there are chemicals
08:24 that you don't recognize, and be wary of buzzwords.
08:27 For example, something that says it's made
08:29 with real fruit or made with real vegetables,
08:32 it might be majority sugars,
08:34 but with a dusting of fruit or vegetable on top.
08:37 Also, there is a difference
08:38 between certified naturally grown,
08:41 which is a regulated term, and naturally grown.
08:45 If something says it's naturally grown,
08:48 that doesn't mean anything.
08:49 The term organic, there are many benefits to organic foods,
08:53 but just because something's organic
08:54 doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy.
08:56 Organic sugar in a candy bar
08:59 doesn't make that candy bar healthy.
09:01 And then lastly, just because something's natural,
09:04 that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
09:06 The terms natural and healthy, they are not regulated.
09:10 These buzzwords are carefully designed.
09:12 They're part of a big marketing strategy
09:15 for food companies.
09:17 Food companies spend, on average, $7.5 billion a year
09:22 advertising their products in the US.
09:24 That's $440 million every single month.
09:29 To put that in context,
09:31 that is like making "Avatar, The Way of Water,"
09:35 which is the highest budget movie ever made,
09:38 once a month, every month, for the whole year.
09:42 So why are companies ultra processing products?
09:45 First of all, it's cheaper.
09:47 You could replace butter with something like palm oil,
09:50 sugar with something like corn syrup.
09:52 The other reason is that government interventions
09:55 have made it really easy to make ultra processed foods
09:59 and a little harder to scale up
10:02 if you're a small business or a farm.
10:04 The government subsidizes corporations
10:06 that produce ultra processed food,
10:08 while private farms have to be privately run.
10:12 There might be a change coming
10:13 in terms of how we're eating ultra processed foods
10:16 in the US.
10:17 In 2025, the US government will be issuing
10:20 new dietary guidance.
10:22 They do this every five years.
10:24 And ahead of that,
10:25 they're conducting a pretty wide ranging study right now,
10:28 looking at the chemicals used in ultra processed foods.
10:32 Big companies are watching this study
10:34 and they're pretty nervous about it.
10:36 Depending on the findings,
10:38 it may impact what Americans are told to eat.
10:42 If Americans swapped one ultra processed food item
10:46 from their meals every single day,
10:49 food companies profits would drop by about 7% on average,
10:54 which is really significant.
10:56 If we just carried on doing that
10:58 and started eating like Mediterranean's all the time,
11:01 these food companies would probably fold.
11:03 Okay, I know I'm doing Gatorade
11:05 and I actually want a sip of it right now.
11:07 I just saw it on my thing and I was like,
11:09 (gagging)
11:11 Okay.
11:19 Okay, so...