Latest / No Forking Nonsense - The Nutritionist UK / YOU ARE BEING LIED TO ABOUT ULTRA PROCESSED FOOD [THE TRUTH]

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YOU ARE BEING LIED TO ABOUT ULTRA PROCESSED FOOD [THE TRUTH] · No Forking Nonsense - The Nutritionist UK

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ultra processed foods. You cannot move for someone telling you that they are killing you. Documentaries, headlines, you mate Dave who has discovered he is now a carnivore, everyone has an opinion. But here is what nobody is telling you. The science is messier than the headlines suggest, the definition is borderline ridiculous and most people listening to this right now worrying about ultra processed foods is about the forty seventh most important thing that you could be doing for your health.
• 0:33
  So today we are cutting through it, the science, the actual definition and the actual question you should be asking instead. This is No Forking Nonsense Welcome to No Forking Nonsense The podcast that slices through the nonsense and serves you straight talking nutrition advice that actually works I'm Paul, a registered nutritionist and your host and every episode I'll debunking diet myths, breaking down confusing food advice and giving you practical science backed tips to help you eat better, feel better and get your edge back. There'll be no fads, no shite, just real talk that makes sense. Before we get started on this episode, I just wanted to say if you want five days of completing free coaching from me, a registered leading nutritionist, for free straight in your inbox, go to tinyurl.comkickstarter26 and you will get five days of completely free coaching straight in your inbox just by clicking that link. So if you have enjoyed anything that I have ever said, go to tinyurl.com/kickstarter26.
• 1:44
  Let's get into the episode. Right, ultra processed foods. Let's get into the first question. What are ultra processed foods? What is an ultra processed food?
• 1:57
  The classification system everyone uses is called Nova and it was created by a Brazilian researcher called Carlos Monteiro in 2009 and it splits foods into four different groups. So you've got group one which is unprocessed or minimally processed, so think fruit, veg, meat, eggs, milk, fine. Group two: processed culinary ingredients, so your oils, butter, flour, sugar, things used in cooking and then we have group three, which is your processed foods, which is tinned fish, cured meats, cheese, freshly baked bread, still fine apparently and then group four, ULTRA PROCESSED and this is where it gets wild. The definition of an ultra processed food under Nova is basically any food that contains ingredients you wouldn't find in a home kitchen. We're talking emulsifiers, stabilisers, flavour enhancers, colours, preservatives.
• 3:09
  If it's in there, it's defined as ultra process and it sounds reasonable on the surface, but here's what actually catches up in the nut. Whole grain bread from the supermarket, ultra processed. Low fat yogurt, ultra processed. Baked beans, ultra processed. Protein bars, ultra processed.
• 3:28
  Most breakfast cereals, including the relatively innocent ones, ultra processed, flavoured sparkling water: ultra processed, a slice of ham: ultra processed, and here's one that made me absolutely laugh out loud when I looked into it: plant based alternatives. Some of the most heavily marketed health foods of the last decade. Absolutely swimming in emulsifiers and stabilizers, they are massive ultra processed foods, so the category is enormous and when you lump a Greggs sausage roll in the same bucket as Weetabix and baked beans, you have to ask yourself whether the category is actually MOLOCs. So what does the science actually say? Now look, m not going to sit here and tell you that ultra processed foods are all great, the research isn t nothing, there are some big studies that do flag associations between ultra processed foods, high in consumption and poor health outcomes.
• 4:30
  The NOVA researchers and others have linked high ultra processed food diets to increased risk of obesity, type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. A 2024 umbrella review of the British Medical Journal looked at nearly 10,000,000 people across multiple studies and found associations between ultra processed food consumption and over 30 negative health outcomes and that's a pretty big number that we can't ignore. But there's the word doing all the heavy lifting here and that is associations. There are observational studies, they track what people eat and what happens to them. They do not prove cause and effect.
• 5:15
  People who eat a lot of ultra processed foods tend to eat less fibre. They tend to have less protein, fewer vegetables, sleep worse, exercise less, smoke more, drink more and have less money. Is it the emulsifiers in the bread or is it everything else that comes with that lifestyle? That is the question the science genuinely cannot answer yet. And then the study that really muddied the water.
• 5:44
  Kevin Hall at the NIH in America did what's called a randomised control study, that is the gold standard of research. He had people actually live in a clinical facility and eat either an ultra processed food diet or a whole food diet, matched for calories, protein, sugar and fibre pound for pound And he found that people in the ultra processed food diet are about 500 calories ate about sorry 500 more calories per day and gained weight. Sounds damning, but here's the thing: he couldn't isolate why. Was it the processing, the texture, the fact that ultra processed foods are usually more calorie dense and easier to eat quickly, the fact that they were slightly lower in fibre in that study despite the matching attempt. We just don't know and that's the honest answer right now, we literally do not know.
• 6:41
  This is where I'm going to be straight with you. So let's say that you're someone who's carrying a bit of extra weight, you're eating too many calories, you not hitting anywhere near enough protein, you are not drinking enough water, you are not eating much veg, you are having a few drinks for the weekend, your sleep is appalling, that is the picture for a huge chunk of this population. Remember sixty percent of the nation are overweight or obese as well. I work with people and communicate with people like described above every single day. Now someone comes along and tells that person that their biggest problem is the emulsifier in their Warburton's loaf, That my friend is a fart in a thunderstorm, it is noise, it s a distraction from the things that would actually move the needle.
• 7:25
  And here s something that nobody talks about when we re having the ultra processed food conversation, alcohol. Alcohol is not classified as an ultra processed food under the NOVA system, which is absolutely insane. A glass of wine is apparently fine, but if you have a muller corner, that s the enemy. And if you drink and you are worried about ultra processed foods, you need to get your priorities sorted. The alcohol is doing 10 times more damage and it s not even worth having a conversation about.
• 7:56
  The same goes for shower gel by the way, sunscreen, shampoo, the air you breathe in a city. We are surrounded by chemicals and additives every single day. The idea that lecithin in your protein bar is what standing between you and good health is frankly absurd. And I'm not saying ultra processed foods don't matter, I'm saying the dose makes the poison and the context makes it. So what does actually matter?
• 8:22
  The characteristic that most ultra processed foods share are actually useful to talk about, but they are just not unique to ultra processed foods. Most ultra processed foods are calorie dense, they are low in protein, they are low in fibre, they are easy to over eat because of the texture, the flavour and how quickly you eat them. And those four things, those are the things worth worrying about, not what is written on the label in small print. If you focus on eating enough protein, getting an adequate amount of fibre, being hydrated, keeping calories roughly in check and building your meals around food that you actually have to chew, you will almost certainly eat fewer ultra processed foods naturally, not because you banned them, but because you crowded them out with better foods. That is where the whole eightytwenty approach comes in.
• 9:11
  80% of the time eat food that s relatively whole, higher protein, decent fibre, 20% of the time have a biscuit, the process whatever and stop making yourself miserable over it. The research on this is actually quite clear: calorie balance drives weight change, protein drives satiety and muscle retention, fibre drives gut health and fullness and sleep drives absolutely everything and those are the levers. So the question is are you being lied to about ultra processed foods and not exactly no, but you are being given an incomplete picture. The science flags genuine concerns but can't tell us why. The NOVA classification is blunt and catches a load of foods that most nutrition professionals would consider perfectly fine.
• 9:59
  The headlines strip out all the nuance and leave you terrified of your baked beans. And my advice is always that eat more food that looks like food, prioritise protein, prioritise fibre, make sure you drink enough water, don't drink your calories, prioritise sleep and move as much as possible. Do those things consistently and the ultra processed food question becomes completely irrelevant because you are already doing the things that actually matter. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. And don't let a Brazilian classification system from 2009 make you feel guilty about having a bowl of Weetabix.
• 10:40
  I hope you found this useful. Please share it with someone who needs to hear it and if you actually want to get the basics right then go to tinyurl.com/kickstartertinytips. I'll speak to you next time. That's it for this episode of No Forking Nonsense where the fluff gets binned and the facts get served. If you found this helpful, share it with someone who could do with some clarity from an expert.
• 11:03
  That's me by the way. And make sure you hit follow so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want more straight talking, no nonsense nutrition advice, come and find me on Instagram paulnenutritionist. Until next time, eat smart, feel human again, and stop falling for the Forking Nonsense. See you next time.