Latest news with #ultraprocessedfoods
New York Times
2 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
Our Doughnuts, Ourselves
It feels like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared war on tastiness. In his May 22 'Make America Healthy Again' report targeting ultraprocessed foods, he had an amnesic disregard for the toxic pleasures he grew up with. He's come up just shy of telling Americans that anything delicious will leave us glued to insulin pumps. Anyway, that's how a United States cabinet secretary inspired my sudden craving for Wonder Bread. The Trump administration's whitewashing of American history from our libraries is bad enough. Whitewashing white bread from my digestive history? Unspeakable. Riding the bread aisle of an aging medium-brow Los Angeles grocery store that appeared bravely oblivious to the iffy Whole Foods-inspired religion of organic everything, I noticed the word 'grain' was everywhere. Just as I realized I didn't really know what a grain was if not followed by 'of salt,' I saw bags of Wonder Bread huddled in shame on a bottom shelf. The future turned present: The lusciously larded foods of my youth were already beside me on the endangered species list. Within minutes, my cart held an old-school reunion while it still could: Wonder Bread, Kraft macaroni and cheese, Kellogg's Corn Pops (nee Sugar Pops), Entenmann's doughnuts (with the dark brown waxy coating they don't even pretend to call chocolate on the box), Hungry Man (nee Swanson's) fried chicken — OMG: frozen White Castle burgers! — Nestlé's Quik, now Nesquik ('Same tooth decay, one fewer syllable!'), whole milk, the once un-P.C. Uncle Ben's rice and grossly un-P.C. Aunt Jemima's syrup (both revamped), Oscar Mayer bologna and, just to keep current, maximum strength Pepcid. I paid the nonjudgmental self-checkout machine and walked off to find my America in a caloric time warp. This would be my own Marcel Proust madeleine quest — childhood morsels as time machine. (Not to say that if Proust lived today he'd be writing about Froot Loops, but he'd surely mourn our dietary penal colony.) Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
What your blood quietly reveals about your eating habits
Blood and urine tests have been found to detect the amount of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) a person eats, according to new research. Using machine learning, scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified hundreds of metabolites (molecules produced during metabolism) that correlated with processed food intake. The team developed a "biomarker score" that predicts ultraprocessed food intake based on metabolite measurements in blood and urine, according to Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. Premature Death Linked To Certain Type Of Food, Study Reveals The researchers drew baseline data from 718 older adults who provided urine and blood samples and reported their dietary habits over a 12-month period, as detailed in an NIH press release. Next, they conducted a small clinical trial of 20 adults. For two weeks, the group ate a diet high in ultraprocessed foods, and for another two weeks they ate a diet with no UPFs. Read On The Fox News App "In our study, we found that hundreds of serum and urine metabolites were correlated with percentage energy from ultraprocessed food intake," Loftfield told Fox News Digital. The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine. The Worst Foods To Buy In The Supermarket And The Better Choices Instead Large-scale studies investigating the health risks of ultraprocessed foods often rely on self-reported dietary questionnaires, which can be prone to errors, per the NIH. The new blood and urine test helps to reduce human error by using objective biomarkers, a growing area of interest among researchers. Loftfield added, "It was surprising to find that UPF-correlated metabolites are involved in numerous and diverse biological pathways, underscoring the complex impact of diet on the metabolome." Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, industrially manufactured products, typically high in calories and low in essential nutrients," according to the NIH. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter Chronic diseases, obesity and various forms of cancer have been linked to diets that are heavy in UPFs. Despite promising results, the researchers emphasized that the new method will require further validation before broader use. Since the current trial focused mainly on older adults, more research is needed across various age groups and diets, the experts said. "Metabolite scores should be evaluated and improved in populations with different diets and a wide range of UPF intake," Loftfield acknowledged. This method could potentially be used in future research to link the consumption of processed foods with chronic diseases, according to the researchers. For more Health articles, visit "For individuals concerned about ultraprocessed food intake, one practical recommendation is to use 'nutrition facts' labels to avoid foods high in added sugars, saturated fat and sodium, as this can limit UPF intake and align with robust scientific research on diet and health," Loftfield article source: What your blood quietly reveals about your eating habits
Fox News
3 days ago
- Health
- Fox News
What your blood quietly reveals about your eating habits
Blood and urine tests have been found to detect the amount of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) a person eats, according to new research. Using machine learning, scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified hundreds of metabolites (molecules produced during metabolism) that correlated with processed food intake. The team developed a "biomarker score" that predicts ultraprocessed food intake based on metabolite measurements in blood and urine, according to Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. The researchers drew baseline data from 718 older adults who provided urine and blood samples and reported their dietary habits over a 12-month period, as detailed in an NIH press release. Next, they conducted a small clinical trial of 20 adults. For two weeks, the group ate a diet high in ultraprocessed foods, and for another two weeks they ate a diet with no UPFs. "In our study, we found that hundreds of serum and urine metabolites were correlated with percentage energy from ultraprocessed food intake," Loftfield told Fox News Digital. The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine. Large-scale studies investigating the health risks of ultraprocessed foods often rely on self-reported dietary questionnaires, which can be prone to errors, per the NIH. The new blood and urine test helps to reduce human error by using objective biomarkers, a growing area of interest among researchers. Loftfield added, "It was surprising to find that UPF-correlated metabolites are involved in numerous and diverse biological pathways, underscoring the complex impact of diet on the metabolome." Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, industrially manufactured products, typically high in calories and low in essential nutrients," according to the NIH. Chronic diseases, obesity and various forms of cancer have been linked to diets that are heavy in UPFs. Despite promising results, the researchers emphasized that the new method will require further validation before broader use. Since the current trial focused mainly on older adults, more research is needed across various age groups and diets, the experts said. "Metabolite scores should be evaluated and improved in populations with different diets and a wide range of UPF intake," Loftfield acknowledged. This method could potentially be used in future research to link the consumption of processed foods with chronic diseases, according to the researchers. For more Health articles, visit "For individuals concerned about ultraprocessed food intake, one practical recommendation is to use 'nutrition facts' labels to avoid foods high in added sugars, saturated fat and sodium, as this can limit UPF intake and align with robust scientific research on diet and health," Loftfield suggested.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A cardiologist overhauled his diet to boost his longevity. Here's the grocery store path he takes to stick to his meal plan and avoid bad foods.
Ultra-processed foods are consistently linked to bad health outcomes, but they can be hard to avoid. A cardiologist writing a book about longevity decided to quit UPFs almost entirely. He shops the perimeter of the grocery store and enjoys more salads and yogurt. When cardiologist Eric Topol goes to the grocery store these days, his cart stands out among the crowd. It's no longer filled with boxes or packaged goods, he says it's largely just fresh produce — a big change from what he used to buy. "I was reading a lot of labels, and now I avoid things with labels," Topol told Business Insider. "When I'm in the grocery store and I'm only buying produce, people look at me like, 'what's wrong with this guy?'" It all happened about a year ago, as he was deep into research for his new bestselling book "Super Agers: An evidence-based approach to longevity." That's when he overhauled his relationship with packaged and mass-produced foods, cracking down on any ultra-processed food (UPF). "I call 'em UFOs," Topol said. "A lot of those things I didn't realize were so full of bad things." Topol shops now using the common nutritional rule-of-thumb to stick to the perimeter of the grocery store, the area where the fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, bulk grains, and frozen veggies are stored. It's those middle aisles full of ultra-processed products that he generally avoids. As Topol explains in his new book, ultra-processed foods are "the polar opposite" of fiber, a key nutrient abundant in fresh foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and grains, which we know is great for our long-term health in all different kinds of ways. For example, fiber slows down and aids digestion, improves cholesterol, fosters the health of the gut microbiome, and even helps stabilize blood sugar. UPFs generally don't. "What is referred to as the 'Western diet,' rich in ultra-processed foods, is pro-inflammatory and linked with metabolic dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and colon cancer," Topol's book says. His diet wasn't wildly unhealthy before, but he's become a more rigorous shopper as a result of his latest research. "If it's packaged or boxed or canned, I know it's probably gonna be a problem," Topol said. "I'll check it out. Sometimes, you can be surprised." Ultra-processed food researchers say not all UPFs are equally unhealthy. Studies show that whole grain breakfast cereals and ultra-processed yogurts aren't as bad for you as hot dogs, packaged desserts, or sugar-sweetened drinks like soda and juice. That second group of foods is more consistently linked to poor long-term health outcomes, like higher rates of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Some cans and boxes in the grocery store aren't even ultraprocessed at all. A can of chickpeas or some black beans seasoned with salt, frozen vegetables, canned fish — these are simply processed foods. They aren't linked to all the same bad health outcomes as UPFs, instead, they're great shortcuts to help encourage more healthy eating at home. Topol says his new shopping routine has morphed his daily diet in a near-effortless way. Plus, he doesn't have to spend so much time reading labels anymore, looking for the long list of ingredients he tries to avoid like high-fructose corn syrup, palm oil, artificial sweeteners, and more. "I eat salad at night, I eat yogurt and some berries in the morning, and not a whole lot in between," he said. "It's a pretty healthy diet, I think." Read the original article on Business Insider
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Scientists can detect junk food consumption in blood and urine tests
Blood and urine tests have been found to detect the amount of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) a person eats, according to new research. Using machine learning, scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identified hundreds of metabolites (molecules produced during metabolism) that correlated with processed food intake. The team developed a "biomarker score" that predicts ultraprocessed food intake based on metabolite measurements in blood and urine, according to Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. The researchers drew baseline data from 718 older adults who provided urine and blood samples and reported their dietary habits over a 12-month period, as detailed in a press release from NIH. Next, they conducted a small clinical trial of 20 adults. For two weeks, the group ate a diet high in ultraprocessed foods, and for another two weeks they ate a diet with no UPFs. "In our study, we found that hundreds of serum and urine metabolites were correlated with percentage energy from ultraprocessed food intake," Loftfield told Fox News Digital. The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine. Large-scale studies investigating the health risks of ultraprocessed foods often rely on self-reported dietary questionnaires, which can be prone to errors, per the NIH. The new blood and urine test helps to reduce human error by using objective biomarkers, a growing area of interest among researchers. Loftfield added, "It was surprising to find that UPF-correlated metabolites are involved in numerous and diverse biological pathways, underscoring the complex impact of diet on the metabolome." Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, industrially manufactured products, typically high in calories and low in essential nutrients," according to the NIH. Chronic diseases, obesity and various forms of cancer have been linked to diets that are heavy in UPFs. Despite promising results, the researchers emphasized that the new method will require further validation before broader use. Since the current trial focused mainly on older adults, researchers say more research is needed across various age groups and diets. "Metabolite scores should be evaluated and improved in populations with different diets and a wide range of UPF intake," Loftfield acknowledged. This method could potentially be used in future research to link the consumption of processed foods with chronic diseases, according to the researchers. For more Health articles, visit "For individuals concerned about ultraprocessed food intake, one practical recommendation is to use Nutrition Facts labels to avoid foods high in added sugars, saturated fat and sodium, as this can limit UPF intake and align with robust scientific research on diet and health," Loftfield suggested.
