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Wisom Wednesdays: The greatest public health crisis of our time - and what we need to do about it. · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Everyone, Welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesday, and today
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  Speaker 1: I want to do a deeper dive into what I
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  Speaker 1: think is becoming the defining health challenge of our time,
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  Speaker 1: and that is the meteoric rise of ultra processed foods,
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  Speaker 1: along with the mounting and compelling evidence of the damage
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  Speaker 1: that they do to our.
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  Speaker 2: Bodies and brains.
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  Speaker 1: But also I want to talk about what we must
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  Speaker 1: change to protect public health. And in this episode, I'm
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  Speaker 1: actually going to explore evidence from over one hundred well
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  Speaker 1: designed studies that look at the impact on every major
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  Speaker 1: organ system, trace how consumption patterns are undermanning our health,
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  Speaker 1: and then we'll talk about what policy levers can actually
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  Speaker 1: turn this around.
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  Speaker 2: So let's set the scene.
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  Speaker 1: So I think most of you have probably heard of
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  Speaker 1: all process foods, particularly if you listen to this podcast,
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  Speaker 1: because I bang on about them.
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  Speaker 2: All the time.
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  Speaker 1: But these are for those who are not familiar with it.
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  Speaker 1: They're industrial formulations of foods, so they're main in factories
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  Speaker 1: and mostly or entirely from substances that have been derived
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  Speaker 1: from food, So not real food, it's parts of it
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  Speaker 1: plus and here's the real nasty stuff. They have lots
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  Speaker 1: of additives, flavorings, emulsifiers, stabilizers, colors, preservatives and so on,
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  Speaker 1: and actually minimal amount of intact whole foods. Now the
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  Speaker 1: classification of ultra process which came from the NOVA system
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  Speaker 1: that come out of a university in Brazil, and I'll
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  Speaker 1: just give you an example. It's been shown that each
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  Speaker 1: ten percent increase in ultraprocessed food consumption has been associated
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  Speaker 1: with significant increased risk of death, ten percent increased risk
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  Speaker 1: of cardiovascar disease, ten percent increased risk of all forms
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  Speaker 1: of cancer and.
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  Speaker 2: All cause mortality.
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  Speaker 1: In and in Australia, there's been a recent report has
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  Speaker 1: shown that that we are actually among the highest consumers
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  Speaker 1: global consumers of ultra processed foods, and now about half
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  Speaker 1: of the average diet is now ultra processed. It's even
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  Speaker 1: worse in the UK, and it's even worse in the
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  Speaker 1: United States. It's over sixty percent. And in both the
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  Speaker 1: United Kingdom and the United States sixty six percent of
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  Speaker 1: all food that teenagers eat is ultra processed.
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  Speaker 2: Shit.
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  Speaker 1: Our food environment is saturated with them. And another report
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  Speaker 1: showed that that supermarkets in Australia seventy seven percent of
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  Speaker 1: everything that's sold in a supermarket is ultra processed foods? Now,
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  Speaker 1: why does all this matter? Well, we want to talk
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  Speaker 1: about There's been a series of papers that have been
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  Speaker 1: released today. You may have actually seen it on the
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  Speaker 1: media today in Australia. Three papers from the Lancet and
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  Speaker 1: I'm also going to talk about a paper that is
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  Speaker 1: just released in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine as well.
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about them. And first of all, the
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  Speaker 1: health risks. So, as I said in the start, there
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  Speaker 1: is a growing body of research, well over one hundred studies,
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  Speaker 1: including umbrella reviews and randomized control trials, and these all
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  Speaker 1: show robust associations between high ultraprocessed food intake and a
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  Speaker 1: broad range of adverse health outcomes, including research from a
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  Speaker 1: significant review find direct links between ultra processed food intake
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  Speaker 1: and thirty two distinct harmful effects spanning across mortality, cancer,
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  Speaker 1: cardiobilic disorders, gos duraltestinal issues, and mental health health outcomes. Sorry,
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  Speaker 1: and I've talked about this umbrella review before. We also
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  Speaker 1: know a high ultra processed food data is associated with obesity,
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  Speaker 1: type two diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, early onset cancers, including
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  Speaker 1: bile cancer, and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine paper
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  Speaker 1: that I mentioned estimated that the number of preventable deaths
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  Speaker 1: linked to ultra process food consumption in multiple countries, and
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  Speaker 1: it really reinforces the problem. There's a huge amount nigh
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  Speaker 1: of preventable deaths that are being attributed to ultra processed foods.
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  Speaker 1: And it's not just because these foods are calorie dense.
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  Speaker 1: It's the additives and the processing that creates issues. So
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  Speaker 1: let's walk through how they affect our bodies and we'll
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  Speaker 1: look at different particular organs and systems in the body.
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  Speaker 1: So first of all, let's look at metabolic and endocrit
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  Speaker 1: system We know now that high ultra processed food consumption
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  Speaker 1: is very strongly linked to type two diabetes and insulin resistance,
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  Speaker 1: and each ten percent increase in ultra processed food intake
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  Speaker 1: corresponds to a twelve percent higher risk of diabetes. So
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  Speaker 1: let's take that the average Australian or Britain or American
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  Speaker 1: that's over fifty percent of their food is ultraed processed
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  Speaker 1: food that requates to a sixty percent higher risk of diabetes.
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  Speaker 1: And we know it's the additives as well as the fat, salt, sugar,
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  Speaker 1: but the additives and the altered food matrix is disrupting
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  Speaker 1: our gut microbiome and then disrupts hormonal sink signaling as well.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about your cardiovascar system, you know the shit
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  Speaker 1: that's in it. All of that accelerates atherosclerosis, hypertension or
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  Speaker 1: high blood pressure and cardiovascar events. And the umbrella review
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  Speaker 1: that I found showed that people in that in the
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  Speaker 1: highest amount of ultra processed food had a whopping fifty
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  Speaker 1: percent increase risk of death from cardiovascar disease, the biggest
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  Speaker 1: killer on the planet.
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  Speaker 2: Then, gastro intestinal.
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  Speaker 1: And liver our gut is exposed directly to these altered
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  Speaker 1: food matrices, the emulsifiers, the flavor chemicals, the preservatives, and
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  Speaker 1: there have been a number of studies that link this
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  Speaker 1: to GOT microbiome disruption, more GOT inflammation polyps that precede
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  Speaker 1: coorectal cancer. And we're seeing a big increase in boil
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  Speaker 1: cancer in under fifties in foot countries that consume high
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  Speaker 1: ultra processed food amounts.
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  Speaker 2: And the fact that.
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  Speaker 1: Sixty six percent of everything that teenagers eat in America
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  Speaker 1: and Britain is ultra processed foods.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus, you just.
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  Speaker 1: Wait ten years, fifteen years and you see the incidents
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  Speaker 1: on bill cancer, It's going to be crazy. And half
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  Speaker 1: the world stopped eating friggin bacon and process meat because
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  Speaker 1: of an eighteen percent increased risk of ball cancer. This
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  Speaker 1: shit is way worse. And that was just ball cancer
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  Speaker 1: for bacon. This is affecting everything, including our nervous system
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  Speaker 1: and our mental health. The Umbrella review I mentioned showed
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  Speaker 1: there were thirty two harmful effects, including a forty eight
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  Speaker 1: percent increased risk of anxiety and a fifty three percent
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  Speaker 1: increased risk of common mental health disorders. And we wonder
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  Speaker 1: why teenagers are struggling so much with mental health. Then cancer,
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  Speaker 1: there's very strong associations between high ultra processed food intake
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  Speaker 1: and cancer instance, whether it be colorectal, breast, head and neck.
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  Speaker 1: And there's a plausible mechanism pro inflammaed re additives, glycemic spikes,
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  Speaker 1: microbiome disruption. Just to mention a few, and as I
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  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, a big increases in all cause mortality with
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  Speaker 1: those having high amounts of ultra processed food and some
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  Speaker 1: studies estimate that it's tens of thousands of premature deaths
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  Speaker 1: per year in the US alone.
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  Speaker 2: Now let's talk about the deterioration of overall health.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So I went through particular organs and organ systems,
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  Speaker 1: but it's also the systemic toxin in our body. So
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  Speaker 1: when we replace normal foods, nutrient dense foods, with these
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  Speaker 1: industrial formulations shit that's been made in factories, we lose
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  Speaker 1: nutrients as well as gaining all the other shit. We
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  Speaker 1: lose fiber, and we have disturbed eating patterns. That food
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  Speaker 1: matrix and addict so the additives that are in it,
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  Speaker 1: and they cause hormonal disruption, metabolic disruption, microbiome damage, there's multi.
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  Speaker 2: Organ wear in terror.
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  Speaker 1: Over many years, the cumulative burden actually bills creating insulin resistance, hypertension,
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  Speaker 1: chronic inflammation, which is the driver of pretty much every
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  Speaker 1: chronic disease. And then then we see disease coming obesity, diabetes,
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  Speaker 1: cardiovaster dides, cancer, anxiety, depression, all of these things and
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  Speaker 1: premature aging and mortality. And now I want to just
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  Speaker 1: focus on very briefly on Australia. So there was a
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  Speaker 1: report in the Guardian today that showed from these papers
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  Speaker 1: in the landset that we are one of the hast
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  Speaker 1: consumers of ultraprocessed foods globally, about half of our diet
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  Speaker 1: now ultra processed foods. And the thing about Australia is
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  Speaker 1: we do not have a national comprehensive food and nutrition
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  Speaker 1: policy that's modern. The last one was way back in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two. The government has been as sleep at
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  Speaker 1: the wheel for over thirty years and there are very
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  Speaker 1: significant structural policy failures. So I just want to take
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  Speaker 1: one thing. Apologies again if you don't live in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: This health star rating that we see on foods, it
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  Speaker 1: is horseshit.
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  Speaker 2: That's my view.
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  Speaker 1: Scientists have called it a classic example of counterproductive policy.
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  Speaker 1: And basically what happened is all the food manufacturers were
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  Speaker 1: involved in its development, enabling ultra pros foods to game
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  Speaker 1: the system and still get high star ratings. So for instance,
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  Speaker 1: let's take nutri grain, the best selling breakfast cereal in
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  Speaker 1: Australia has got I think it's four and a half stars,
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  Speaker 1: and they got that high because they reduced their sugar
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  Speaker 1: content from thirty three grams per hundred grams to twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine grams per hundred grams. It's still ultra process shit
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  Speaker 1: that is high in sugar, but it's got a lot
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  Speaker 1: of stars because the Star system compares foods in a category, right,
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  Speaker 1: so nutri grain is compared to other breakfast cereals and
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  Speaker 1: because most of them are shit, it gets a higher
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  Speaker 1: star rating.
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  Speaker 2: So it's just a crazy system.
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  Speaker 1: So let's let's gain broaden out a bit more general
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  Speaker 1: and talk about conflicts of interests. The US is probably
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  Speaker 1: leading on this, so the US Right to No investigation
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  Speaker 1: found that nearly half of all members of the Datary
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  Speaker 1: Guidelines Advisory Committee had significant ties to big food each
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  Speaker 1: our pharmaceutical companies such as Nestle, Coca Cola, National legg Board,
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  Speaker 1: these sorts of things. And another analysis found that ninety
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  Speaker 1: five percent of the members had some conflict of interest
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  Speaker 1: either food or pharma industry in the twenty twenty guidelines
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  Speaker 1: processed like that is just bullshit.
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  Speaker 2: And the Nutrition Coalition.
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  Speaker 1: And they found that nine out of twenty members had
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  Speaker 1: high or medium risk conflicts of interest with companies or industry.
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  Speaker 1: And these are people that are setting the dietary guidelines,
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  Speaker 1: which for me is just bonkers. I've already talked about
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  Speaker 1: Australia and the health star riisdom, which is problematic. There's
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  Speaker 1: also problems in the UK. So what do we need
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  Speaker 1: to do? Probably, and the Lancet was pointing towards this.
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  Speaker 1: These series a three tiered roadmap. One is personal household
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  Speaker 1: and other's community and health, and then the other's national policy.
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  Speaker 1: So at the individual level, this is about eating more
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  Speaker 1: real food, shit that's been alive. Right, And if I've
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  Speaker 1: talked for many, many years about a low Hahi diet,
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  Speaker 1: low human interference, and I use the eighty twenty ruler,
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  Speaker 1: about eighty percent of the stuff that goes into your
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  Speaker 1: gub and your kids gobs on a daily basis should
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  Speaker 1: have been alive recently and minimally interfered with by humans.
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  Speaker 1: So there are lots of things such as breakfast cereals,
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  Speaker 1: protein bars, these sorts of things that are just mail
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  Speaker 1: in factories and plant based burgers. You know it siunds healthy,
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  Speaker 1: but they're basically their ultra process shit. So the key
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  Speaker 1: thing is check the labels and if it's got more
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  Speaker 1: than five ingredients, it's probably an ultra processed food. If
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  Speaker 1: it's got things like a multiplier, stables, flavors or stuff
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  Speaker 1: that your granny wouldn't mention, it's an ultra processed food.
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  Speaker 1: If you haven't seen it running around on two legs
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  Speaker 1: or four legs, or grown out of the ground or
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  Speaker 1: off a tree, it's an ultra processed food. So it's
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  Speaker 1: about minimizing the amount that we buy because when it's
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  Speaker 1: in the house, you're more likely to eat it. And
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  Speaker 1: this stuff is very Moorish because it's been designed to
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  Speaker 1: hijack our brains. It's about having more home cooked meals.
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  Speaker 1: It's about cooking extra and using that for your lunch,
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  Speaker 1: and it's about having snacks that.
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  Speaker 2: Are actually real foods.
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  Speaker 1: Then at the community level, we need to update the messaging,
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  Speaker 1: not just less sugar and fat that's so outdeated. The
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  Speaker 1: focus is going to be on less ultra processing and
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  Speaker 1: schools and hospitals. Like I was recently in hospital, the
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  Speaker 1: food was shit. A lot of it was just ultra
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  Speaker 1: process crap, high carbohydrate, very low protein, very low amounts
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  Speaker 1: of good fats because it's cheap. It's cheapest chips and
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  Speaker 1: the salmon skulls. You know, we're feeding our kids ultra
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  Speaker 1: process shit because it's cheap.
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  Speaker 2: In Brazil.
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  Speaker 1: Then I have a policy that foods in school launch
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  Speaker 1: programs have to be ninety percent minimally processed oh to be.
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  Speaker 2: And we need to have.
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  Speaker 1: Surveillance systems that monitor consumption rates and link them to
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  Speaker 1: disease outcomes so that we can actually measure the progress
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  Speaker 1: and this stuff. And then the national level, this is
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  Speaker 1: what the Lances calling for and I fully agree with it.
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  Speaker 1: We've got to reform the food system. We've got to
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  Speaker 1: tax ultra processed foods and drinks, and we've got to
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  Speaker 1: subsidize real foods. We've got to have regulations to restrict
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  Speaker 1: marketing of ultra process foods, especially the children. We need
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  Speaker 1: to get the supermarkets on board to stop having this
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  Speaker 1: stuff right at the at the counters or at the
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  Speaker 1: end of the aisles, which is where you're most likely
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  Speaker 1: to buy stuff.
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  Speaker 2: And we need to reform the packaging.
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  Speaker 1: We need to get rid of this horseshit health Star
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  Speaker 1: rating in Australia and actually replace it about ultra processed
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  Speaker 1: food rating. And then we need to weed out the
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  Speaker 1: conflicts of interests on the ditry guidelines. We need to
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  Speaker 1: hold dietitians Australia to account. They were found to be
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  Speaker 1: taking money from breakfast cereal manufacturers. Now I know that
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  Speaker 1: was years ago, but there's just dodgy shit that happens
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  Speaker 1: all the time, and we need national nutritional policies that
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  Speaker 1: are tied to this evidence because the evidence around this
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  Speaker 1: stuff is not what they call Class one evidence, which
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  Speaker 1: is compelling evidence. And this is what we need to do.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a sum up. Really my rant, this is
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  Speaker 1: a wisdom rednsty rant. The evidence here is not irrefutable
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  Speaker 1: that high consumption of ultra processed food is a major driver,
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  Speaker 1: if not the major driver of chronic disease, both physical
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  Speaker 1: and mental. It affects every single major organ system. It
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  Speaker 1: accelerates our aging, it destroys our mental health, and it
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  Speaker 1: contributes to premature death, and it's a massive impact on
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  Speaker 1: the healthcare system. We are living through a nutrition crisis
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  Speaker 1: with a default diet in many countries not healthy. And
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  Speaker 1: what the research is sharing that the more supermarkets that
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  Speaker 1: there are in countries, the more ultra processed foods that
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  Speaker 1: are actually consumed. We need to start taxing the shit
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  Speaker 1: out of this, and we need to start subsidizing real
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  Speaker 1: food if we are serious about reversing the tide. It's
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  Speaker 1: not a nice to have this stuff, but I think
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  Speaker 1: it's now a public health imperative rant.
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  Speaker 2: Over catch you next time.