The Butterfly Effect

The extent of health epidemics like cardiac diseases, diabetes and hypertension in a society have been found to coincide with the level of processed food eaten by the general population. Large-scale studies conducted in the U.K., Europe and the U.S. establish a direct connection between the amount of processed food eaten and increased risk of all-cause mortality ¹ (all-cause mortality is a fancy statistical way of saying death by any reason or cause).

 According to Harvard School of Public Health, ultra processed foods are foods that not only have added sugars, sweeteners and salt, but also “include artificial colors and flavors and preservatives that promote shelf stability, preserve texture, and increase palatability.” Some examples of ultra processed foods are Coca cola, Oreo cookies, Pringles potato chips and Fruit Loops. Read more about classification of foods according to their level of processing here.

1. Ultra-processed foods cause us to eat more

Highly processed food is typically low in bulky fiber but dense in calories. Think soft drinks, chips, candy, most commercial chocolate bars, commercial ice cream, sweetened breakfast cereals, packaged soups, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, fries and more! These calorie-dense foods cause a delayed response in the stretch receptors that assess the quantity and the quality of food in our digestive system.

When we eat processed foods, the stretch receptors in our stomachs- the sensory neurons that signal our brains that we are full²– take longer to tell our brains to stop eating. This means that by the time we feel full, we have consumed too many unhealthy calories.

Another kind of stretch receptors present in our intestines³ detect the kind of nutrients present in the food we have eaten. Our uber-smart bodies have developed this mechanism to make sure that we consume the nutrients it needs for normal cell and system functioning. Since processed foods are low in nutrients, these neurons also delay the signal to the brain to stop eating as they wait to reach the threshold of the nutrients our bodies need.

2. Ultra processed foods increase our weight set-point making it difficult for us to lose weight even when we try hard

Our weight set-point is the weight that our bodies strive to maintain. In a healthy adult, this means that if you, for some reason lose weight, mechanisms in our bodies will be triggered to gain the weight back. On the other hand, when a healthy adult gains weight, their body will work hard to lose it. 

Then why is it that most of us don’t seem to lose the weight we gain? The simple answer to that is that due to factors like yo-yo dieting or an unnaturally rapid weight loss, our set point gets set higher and so our bodies do not try to revert back to “normal” after we gain weight.

Moreover, it has been found in rodent studies that processed foods cause inflammation and lesions in the nerve cells in the hypothalamus- the part of the brain that, among other things, acts as a command center for our appetite and energy regulation. These injured brain cells are then unable to sense the appetite hormone leptin which signals our brains to stop eating. As a result, rodents ate to the point where they packed on more fat and drove up their set points. There is strong evidence that the same might be happening in our bodies.

3. Ultra processed foods are addictive

Ever feel like you can’t stop eating, even when your logic is telling you to “Stop. This. Instant”? As a recovering food-addict, I can vouch for the fact that this is a battle not as easy as it looks. If someone tells you, “Just eat less and you will lose weight”, you have my full permission to send them this long blog post (kudos to you for reaching this far by the way).

Apart from the double whammy of our stomachs not sending satiety signals to the brain on time and our brains not being able to process the signals from the hormones it does release, there is another factor into play here- dopamine. You must have heard a lot about dopamine, which is another neurotransmitter and it plays a big role in how we feel pleasure. Processed foods cause us to release dopamine which motivates us to eat more of them!

Our brains are hardwired to produce dopamine when we eat fat, sugars and salts, as these ingredients were not easy to come by in prehistoric times. A kick of dopamine in our body made sure that our ancestors did not easily give up their search for game, honey or berries. The problem is, our bodies have not caught up to the fact that we don’t need this signal anymore as we don’t need to hunt or scavenge for food anymore, all it takes is a click of a computer mouse for food to arrive at our doorsteps in minutes! Our brain unfortunately still goes wild when we consume the exciting combo of fats, sugars and salt.

It’s not easy to exercise your willpower when food scientists in the profit-driven food industries have found ways to blend the perfect proportions of fat, salt and sugar to find a bliss point- the point where a product has the best texture, feel and taste to release the highest amount of dopamine. This is the reason that the ad tagline of the irresistible Lays’ chips, “You just can’t stop at one!” rings so true.

4. Ultra processed foods cause massive disruptions to our gut bacteria

Unless you have been living under a rock, you must have heard about a plethora of ways healthy gut bacteria benefit us. After all, this now-well-established research finding has caused us to brew kombucha and kefir by the litres, buy expensive probiotic supplements, or wolf down kimchi or sauerkraut even if they are not the right fit in our diets culturally.

The emulsifiers, artificial colourants and many other chemicals found in processed foods⁴ as well as the thermal processing these foods go through during their preparation have a negative impact on our gut bacteria⁶. The imbalances caused in the quality and diversity of our gut bacteria trigger obesity⁵, metabolic syndromes, auto-immune diseases and inflammatory bowel disease.

The good news is that we are increasingly becoming aware of the harmful effects of processed food which is evidenced by the decreasing sales posted by companies making a lot of the junk we eat- Hunt’s, Reddi Whip, Swiss Miss, Kraft and Kelloggs since the mid 2010s. 

The bad news is that we still have a long way to go in finding the sweet spot between falling under the trap of the convenience and taste temptations of highly processed food on one hand and growing our own food in our backyard on the other. But as we make our way to living a healthy lifestyle (whatever that may look like for us), avoiding processed food is one of the most important steps we can take to improve our health and quality of life.

One of the best ways to remove these foods from our diet is through a technique called “crowding out.” Crowding out involves focusing on eating less processed, wholesome and nutritional foods rather than worrying about not eating unhealthy or harmful foods. To crowd out harmful processed food, we can start to include more whole foods in our diets. Read here to find out five ways you can include more whole foods in your diet.

1. Marti A. Ultra-Processed Foods Are Not “Real Food” but Really Affect Your Health. Nutrients. 2019;11(8):1902. Published 2019 Aug 15. doi:10.3390/nu11081902 2. https://www.foodindustry.com/articles/the-4-categories-of-processed-foods/

2 & 3. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/gut-feelings

4. Rinninella E, Cintoni M, Raoul P, Lopetuso LR, Scaldaferri F, Pulcini G, Miggiano GAD, Gasbarrini A, Mele MC. Food Components and Dietary Habits: Keys for a Healthy Gut Microbiota Composition. Nutrients. 2019 Oct 7;11(10):2393. doi: 10.3390/nu11102393. PMID: 31591348; PMCID: PMC6835969.

5. Miclotte L, Van de Wiele T. Food processing, gut microbiota and the globesity problem. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2020;60(11):1769-1782. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2019.1596878. Epub 2019 Apr 4. PMID: 30945554.6. Zhang Z, Li D. Thermal processing of food reduces gut microbiota diversity of the host and triggers adaptation of the microbiota: evidence from two vertebrates. Microbiome. 2018 May 31;6(1):99. doi: 10.1186/s40168-018-0471-y. PMID: 29855351; PMCID: PMC5984331.