When you are out shopping in the mall or on the high street, do you ever notice how easy it is to make an unhealthy food choice, and how difficult it is to make a healthy food choice?
As a Metabolic Health Coach, everywhere I look, I am inundated with poor quality and unhealthy food options. This is pretty much the norm in most industrialized and urban environments around the world. In his book – Metabolical, Dr Robert Lustig claims that ultra-processed food accounts for 70% of the items found in supermarkets, and 85% of the food produced by the top 25 global food manufacturers.
From the big chain food brands and supermarkets, right through to the smaller more independent outlets, there is an overwhelming abundance of tasty, unhealthy ultra-processed food (UPF’s) vying for our attention. When we walk down the high street or through the mall we are constantly being allured by the sights and smells of unhealthy foods being cooked, fried or baked. Our senses are being continuously excited and tempted, while our will power is being continuously depleted!
From an evolutionary perspective, we are hard wired to gravitate towards foods that are rich in energy and sweet to the taste. As hunter gatherer’s we would ( and some still do), gorge on the sweet tasting honey from bees nests, and also favour the fattiest parts of animals, due to their rich supply of energy, nutrients and taste. Research has suggested that our tendency towards the more fatty and energy rich parts of animals, such as the brains and organs, has significantly contributed to the size and growth of our brains. With this in mind, we could conclude that eating fatty and sweet things has contributed to our success as a species. Unfortunately in a modern world of ultra-processed junk food, eating fatty and sweet things is now contributing to our demise!
With this evolutionary drive to favour fat and sugar, we are now constantly having to suppress our primal instincts to avoid conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Our primal desire for the combination of fat and sugar stems from our very first encounters with food . Mothers milk has a particular ratio of sugars and fats, similar to that of some of the most palatable junk foods available, such as milk chocolate, ice cream, biscuits and donuts.
Physiologically, we are the same as our hunter gatherer ancestors, and although our desire and need for certain nutrients and tastes may not have changed, the quality of our food and the eating environment has…dramatically!
Ultra processed foods have almost taken over the modern diet. Their consumption varies from country to country, however, in the UK and the US, they make up more than half of the foods purchased and eaten, The industrial food industry has so much power and influence that it can manipulate us through deceptive marketing & branding, strategic placement of products within stores, influencing public health nutrition guidelines, and even influencing nutrition research.
On the other side of that packet of potato chips is a team of food scientists and marketing experts, handsomely paid to ensure that you find it difficult to stop eating them!
UPF’s are manufactured to make us want more. The industry uses words such as craveability, snackability and moreishness to describe the qualities that are scientifically engineered to make us eat as much as possible. The term ‘bliss point’ is used to describe the amount of salt, sugar and fat that optimizes the taste of a product. The term ‘mouth feel’ describes things like the perfect crunch of a chip.
So it seems as though it’s just a matter of time before we give in to the constant environmental nudges to eat poor quality food, especially when we are hungry. This gives credence to the old adage: ‘Don’t go food shopping on an empty stomach’.
This actually has a bit of truth behind it. Shopping habits have been compared between 2 groups of people. One group who had eaten within 5 hours of shopping, and one group who hadn’t. Those who hadn’t eaten within 5 hours of shopping chose more high calorie, low quality foods than those who had eaten before shopping.
This suggests we are going to be more susceptible to poor food choices when we are hungry. Combine this with an environment that is constantly tempting us to eat poor quality UPF’s, and we have a metabolic storm on the horizon!
We also chow down on ultra-processed food when we’re not hungry. We eat in response to stress boredom, tiredness and other emotions. Because of the lack of key nutrients in UPF’s such as protein and fibre, we can eat significantly more junk foods than foods in their natural state. A great example of this is the ‘Protein Leverage Hypothesis’, which proves that we will overeat in the absence of enough dietary protein. We will keep eating until our protein requirements are met. It is actually quite hard to ‘overeat’ foods in their natural state because they contain more fibre, protein and nutrients which signal to our bodies that we are satiated.
So whether we are hungry or not we are still susceptible to eating ultra-processsed food!
The industrial food industry isn’t necessarily an evil empire that sets out to intentionally make us sick, but the bottom line is that their main priority is shareholder profit, not protecting our health.
Even talking about junk food can make us crave it!
Sugar has also been added to everyday products such as bread, tinned soup, condiments and low-fat foods. This somewhat stealthily addition of sugar to everyday products potentially primes us to want foods that have a sweeter and richer taste than naturally occurring whole foods.
As consumers, we have the power to VOTE with our food choices, and to be more aware of what the foods we vote for contain. Food industry isn’t going to stop trying to make us consume their products any time soon, and by ignoring the details of our food choices, we are harming the physical and mental health of ourselves and our children.
Some simple ways to reduce the sugar content in your diet are as follows:
- Read labels for sugar content. The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of 37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons per day, and even that is completely unnecessary, so as an experiment, why not keep a weekly record of added sugar to see how much you and your children are consuming.
Research suggests we significantly underestimate the amount of sugar in our diets so it’s definitely worth taking an objective look!
- Avoid most breakfast cereals– Starting your day with a sugary breakfast cereal will start an insulin rollercoaster that can lead to a crash in blood sugar levels and the desire for more quick energy foods in the form or refined carbs and sugar. This will increase the likelihood of obesity and all it’s complications such as type 2 diabetes.
- Eat mostly naturally occurring foods. Avoid UPF’s where possible.
- Eat more full-fat foods– Low fat foods are often high in added sugar as a way of substituting taste. Ironically, eating low fat foods can be making you fatter as a result of eating more sugar!
- Prioritise and fall in love with the ceremony of food preparation and cooking. Make time to prepare simple dishes from scratch. Also try to involve your kids in preparing cooking and baking.
- If you’re overweight, obese, have a history of binge eating sugary foods, or crave more sweet foods after eating something sweet, you should completely avoid added sugar in your diet.
So the bottom line is that ultra-processed food is completely unnecessary for human health. There really is no recommended amount to consume, and it would be better to avoid it completely. ( I know you’re thinking ‘easier said than done!’).
Read labels, don’t shop on an empty stomach, and be mindful of the ultra-processed food industry’s desire to keep you coming back for more, regardless of how sick you become. Don’t just avoid it for yourself avoid it for your children 🙏
In Strength and Health
