Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Many people already may be wavering on their resolution to eat healthier this year. Sometimes, knowing what foods to avoid can be as important as understanding which ones to eat. According to recent research from the American Medical Association, ultra-processed foods are at the top of the list of what to stay away from, with studies showing a shocking 31% higher mortality rate among their highest consumers.
“Put simply, if you don’t see a food’s main ingredients in their natural forms, like grain, vegetables and meat, it is highly likely to be an ultra-processed food,” said Yikyung Park, professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Ultra-processed foods are highly manipulated and contain many added ingredients and additives. In most cases, we cannot make ultra-processed foods at home.”
What ultra-processed foods?
Examples include soda (sugary and diet), lunch meat, instant noodles, instant soup, sausage, hot dogs, frozen meals (including pizza and burritos), many store-bought cakes and sweets, and most breakfast cereals. As Metro Voice News reported, eating higher amounts of ultra-processed foods is associated with a higher risk of several serious conditions, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, poor sleep, poor mental health and premature death.
How ultra-processed foods increase these risks likely relates to their collection of ingredients. According to another Metro Voice investigation, they tend to be high in those ingredients that consumers should limit in a healthy diet and low in those on which they should focus.
They can be high in calories, salt, unhealthy fats and added sugar and sweeteners, which can cause long-term inflammation in the body, disrupt the normal function of metabolism and affect the development and release of neurotransmitters that play roles in mood disorders, such as depression.
Ultra-processed foods also tend to be low in fiber, another potential negative.
Park shared one quick way to identify the types of foods to steer clear of to improve overall health, and all it takes is a glance at the food label. “If the ingredient list is very long and you don’t recognize those ingredients, it’s better not to eat that food,” he said.
–Dwight Widaman
