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Welcome back, my gardening friends, to another Focal Point
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Friday episode. Let's spend just a few minutes
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together reviewing A snippet of information from a previous
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episode, highlighting a new topic, or quickly focusing on a
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current event in the Food and Agriculture world.
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Let's get down and dirty. So if you guys know anything
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about me at all, you know that I'm a little bit of a research
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nerd and I came across an article in the New York Times.
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Oh, it was back at the beginning of May and it was talking about
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a link between highly processed foods and brain health.
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And it was referencing a bunch of different studies.
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And so of course, I went down a study rabbit hole, and ended up
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reviewing 6 different studies that were related to this
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article. And essentially what the article
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was discussing was the idea that eating packaged foods has been
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associated with anxiety. Depression and cognitive
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decline. Now I'm going to be referencing
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the average American diet here, and this probably will not come
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to too much of a surprise to most of us here, at least in
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North America, the rest of the world.
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You guys might be shocked at some of these things that I'm
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going to talk about. And even I was a little
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surprised by some of these numbers.
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Roughly 60%, six, zero, 60% of the calories in the average
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American diet comes from highly. Processed foods.
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Now, there have been studies done over the past 20 years that
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have shown that eating all of these packaged, processed
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products, like some of the breakfast cereals and frozen
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meals, and these packaged sweets and snack bars and everything
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else are linked to things like an increased risk of diabetes
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and obesity and even cancer. But there have been more recent
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studies that are showing that these also seem to have a
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significant impact on our minds. So in the last 10 years or so,
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these studies that are coming out are showing that the more
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ultra processed foods a person eats, the higher the chances
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that they will feel depressed and anxious.
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And a few of those studies have even suggested that there is a
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link between eating these foods and an increased risk of
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cognitive decline. So first of all, what exactly is
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an ultra processed food? There was a Brazilian research
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team back in 2009 that broke foods down into a four part
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scale, so it ranged from those foods that are completely
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unprocessed. To the ones that are minimally
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processed, like, you know, fruits that are already diced up
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or rice that has been dried or flour that has been milled to
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the processed ones, like oils, butter, sugar, dairy products.
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A few of the canned foods that are barely minimum, like just
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canned green beans, smoked meats and fish and then everything
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else kind of went into that ultra processed category.
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Those are the things that generally have that laundry list
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of ingredients on the back of the box.
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Or the bag things that contain things that we wouldn't use in
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our own homemade recipe. So high fructose corn syrup, you
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know hydrogenated oils, all of these different chemical
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additives or sweeteners or flavors, emulsifiers, all of
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this stuff. So that classification system
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that they put in place is now actually used very widely by
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nutrition researchers. So when we're saying ultra
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processed. That's exactly what it's exactly
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what it sounds like it is. All of those things that just
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have those long lists of really weird, sometimes unpronounceable
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ingredients. That is also the majority of the
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packaged foods that you're going to find in the frozen food
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aisles. At the grocery store and then
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also towards sort of the center of the grocery store, While all
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of those packaged foods are sold, 70% of the packaged foods
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sold in the US are considered ultra processed.
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And of course these same foods are very carefully created.
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I mean they have food scientists that are telling these companies
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what to put in them and how to formulate them.
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So that they are very palatable and they are almost addictive to
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a certain extent. They're making them taste better
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and they're making them taste saltier or sweeter or that right
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perfect combination of the both. But unfortunately, the products
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that they are using to make them taste this way makes them less
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and less like real food. So what does that mean for our
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mental health? The research recently has
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demonstrated a link. Between highly processed foods
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and feelings of mild depression or feelings of anxiety, and that
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one of the study authors had said that there was a
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significant increase. In the number of mentally
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unhealthy days for those people who were eating 60% or more of
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their calories from these ultra processed foods, and they very
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quickly pointed out that this isn't, you know, a proof.
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This isn't causation. We always talk about that
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causation over correlation, but it does show that there seems to
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be an association. Well, think about that.
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An increase in mentally unhealthy days for those who
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were aiding 60% or more of their calories from those ultra
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processed foods. What did we say at the
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beginning? We said roughly 60% of the
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calories in the average American diet comes from highly processed
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foods. And we're wondering why all of a
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sudden we are seeing this surge in mental health issues.
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So now they are also seeing in a much more recent study, one that
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was done just in 2022 that found a correlation between eating
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these ultra processed foods and a decline in the ability to be
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able to learn to reason to solve problems and in memory.
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So this was far beyond what we would normally see like in a
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natural decline that you see with age.
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This decline accelerated by 28% in people who consumed more than
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20% of their calories from these ultra processed foods.
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That is a drastically different volume of food than that 60%
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that we were just talking about. 20% of their calories from
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processed foods caused a decline in their.
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Cognitive function. That's insane.
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But what they also figured out was that it is possible that
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eating an otherwise healthy diet might offset some of those
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detrimental effects. So if the people who were eating
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20% of their diet in these ultra processed foods ate the rest of
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their diet in, you know, rich in green leafy vegetables and
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legumes and fish and chicken and you know, healthy oils like
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olive oil and berries and that sort of thing, that seemed to
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counterbalance the detrimental effects of eating the ultra
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processed foods. So.
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I mean it kind of just goes back to that everything in moderation
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piece, right. If you eat healthy, like really
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healthy 80% of the time and your your diet is minimally processed
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and then 20% of your diet you kind of you know cave into the.
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The junk food or the convenience type stuff, then you likely are
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going to be OK. But once you kind of flip the
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switch and you start moving more towards all of those ultra
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processed foods, not only are you seeing cognitive decline in
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a people who eat a lower percentage of their calories
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from those, but then once you get up above 60%, OK, well then
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we're talking about depression and and just mentally unhealthy
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days. This is astonishing.
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So the big question has been, OK, great.
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We've done all these studies over the past 10 to 20 years
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that show all of these sort of disordered effects from eating
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these foods. But why is it happening?
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And the one thing that they keep going back to is gut health.
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So we've heard a lot more in recent years about the gut brain
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connection, right? The healthier our gut Biome is,
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the better off we are because it actually affects our brain
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function. Well, now they're seeing it be
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more closely tied to these ultra processed foods and these have
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been really high quality randomized studies that have
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shown there's a beneficial effect of having a.
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Very nutrient dense diet in people who have depression, but
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they weren't really able to figure out why and why the
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processed foods would have the opposite effect.
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So much of the research now is focusing on that poor gut
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health. And how that affects the brain.
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And a lot of this has to do with fiber, which was not the
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direction I thought this was going.
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So diets that are high in these ultra processed foods are
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typically also low in fiber because those are mostly found
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in things like fruits and vegetables and whole grains and
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nuts and seeds. Well, fiber helps to feed our
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good bacteria in the gut. It is necessary for the
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production of short chain fatty acids.
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This is what is produced when fiber breaks down in the
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digestive system and those short chain fatty acids play a very
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important role in brain function.
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So what they have study is that people with depression and other
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mental health issues tend to have a less diverse composition
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of gut bacteria and they have fewer of those short chain fatty
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acids. So unfortunately or fortunately
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depending on how you look at it, most of these.
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Are done on animals. But there is also some human
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data. And what they're seeing is that
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when you isolate certain nutrients, like if you take just
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specifically the fructose, you start using emulsifiers,
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polysorbate 80 and carboxyl methyl cellulose and all these
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other things that we can't pronounce or artificial
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sweeteners like aspartame and saccharin, it starts to
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negatively influence the gut microbiota And once we start to
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get rid of that diversity. Of the gut microflora.
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And then you start adding in more sugar, it's going to
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contribute to chronic inflammation, and that also is
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linked to a whole bunch of different mental and physical
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issues. The increased inflammation and
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it's linked to the brain actually are thought to drive
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the development of depression. So your diet influences your
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mood, but then also the opposite can be true.
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So what they're seeing is that sort of vicious cycle.
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When we get stressed out or were depressed or we get anxious over
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something, we tend to lean towards more of the ultra
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processed foods, those ones that are high in sugar or fat or.
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Those chemical additives, and that can actually make things
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worse. So I have always been a label
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reader. It's it has to be excruciating
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for anybody that goes with me to the grocery store to include my
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husband, because I am always flipping those boxes over or
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flipping those bags over and looking at the laundry list of
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ingredients. And if there's anything in there
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that I can't pronounce, or if there's specific things that I
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try to stay away from, certain sweeteners, certain additives,
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it goes right back on the shelf again.
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And for the longest time, I would just buy the same things
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over and over again. I would check to make sure it
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was something that I was comfortable with us eating and
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that would make it onto my go to list until I realized that
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companies are continually changing.
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Their formulas and their ingredients lists, and they'll
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change it without letting us know that they've changed it,
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obviously. So now I make a habit, even with
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the things that I buy continually, to check that list
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of ingredients every so often. If it starts to get much longer
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than five or eight ingredients, you've already pretty much lost
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me. And this isn't with everything.
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I'm not saying that I eat perfectly or that we eat
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perfectly in this house. No, absolutely not when we are
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in the middle of the farming season and.
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It's a matter of what can I grab and throw in the air fryer or
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what can I throw in the microwave?
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And yes, we have a microwave. I know, don't at me, but it's a
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convenient thing at that point. It's better than us not eating
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anything at all, at all, or so I thought.
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So now I am doing a much better job after reading all of these
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different studies and looking at the ingredients that are coming
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into the house, even in the things that we do choose to
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allow to be processed. So I think the overarching theme
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of this is, again, everything in moderation.
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If we can keep 80% of our diet as Whole Foods, unprocessed
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foods, right, or things that are minimally processed, remember,
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minimally processed is not what we're talking about here.
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We're not talking about frozen vegetables or canned fish or
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canned beans. That you know precooked brown
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rice or sweet potatoes or broccoli rice or cauliflower
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rice, right? Those those still only have like
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1 ingredient or you know two maybe if they're adding salt as
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a preservative or whatever. That's not what we're talking
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about here. Those kind of shortcuts and
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those convenient foods aren't contributing to this problem.
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So I think if we can keep our diets to 80% that stuff and only
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allow the rest of our diet, you know the other 20% to be
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permeated by these ultra processed foods, Obviously the
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more that we can stay away from those things the the better off
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we are. And I think we have to pick our
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battles. But if we're going to continue
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to see this trend of you know, things that we're eating causing
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depression and anxiety and poor gut.
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Health and everything that goes along with it, then you know,
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we're just going to have to push back against it.
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And the only thing, the only way that we can do that is partly by
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growing our own food and making sure we know where our food
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comes from and when we are buying it, keeping ourselves
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informed and making sure that we know what we're eating and we
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know how it's affecting us and affecting our families.
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Thanks for joining me on this focal point Friday.
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I'll be back again on Tuesday for another regular episode of
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the Just Grow Something podcast. So until next time, my gardening
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friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk
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again soon.