When Don Baiocchi was in his 20s, he suffered serious digestive issues accompanied by brain fog, fatigue, and weakness. A recipe developer, he decided to change up his diet and began following a low-fat protocol with lots of whole grains. But this brought no relief.

Then, when a friend mentioned she was going to give up gluten, he decided to try it too — and that changed nearly everything. “I felt a lot better,” he says. “About 90 percent of my digestion issues cleared up.”

Yet he found himself with a new problem: food anxiety.

Gluten-free options weren’t nearly as abundant then as now, so eating anywhere but his own kitchen was risky. Baiocchi could never trust the dishes he ordered in restaurants that appeared to be gluten-free. What if they used glutenous soy sauce unknowingly? What if something was wheat-free but not gluten-free?

The same went for dining at friends’ homes. Eating with others became a source of stress instead of a chance to relax and celebrate.

Many of us can relate. If we have food intolerances, we might feel anxious about food allergens. Maybe we’re preoccupied by the effects certain proteins like gluten and lectins could have on our long-term health. Caloric density is another common concern. Whatever is at the root of our worries, the result is the same: Our relationship with food has become fundamentally stressful and restrictive.

Food is emotional, and anxiety around it is common. But know this: You have options. Even if you need to restrict certain food groups for health reasons, a more relaxed relationship with food is possible.

The Roots of Food Anxiety

There are a host of reasons people develop food anxiety. Painful physical reactions to certain foods, as Baiocchi experienced, are one. Others, according to Maggie Ward, MS, RDN, LDN, nutrition director of The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Mass., include diet culture, food allergies and intolerances, celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, irritable bowel disease, and patterns of disordered eating, like orthorexia. (A sibling to anorexia, orthorexia is a restrictive-eating pattern that stems from fears about food quality rather than quantity and caloric value.)

Ward calls food anxiety a “fear of food, which can include a drive to be perfect with one’s food choices.” It can also involve shame, isolation, and in the case of orthorexia and other restrictive-eating disorders, physical symptoms.

“A food-restricted body can start to shut down,” says psychologist and eating-disorder specialist Rachel Millner, PsyD. “People experience bone loss. People develop osteoporosis. Their blood pressure and heart rate can be lowered.”

Food anxiety can exist beneath our conscious awareness, as it did for Melissa Urban, cofounder of Whole30, and author of 10 books, including The Whole30’s Food Freedom Forever: Letting Go of Bad Habits, Guilt, and Anxiety Around Food.

In 2009, Urban felt she was in a good place with her habits and attitude toward food. She’d been through rehab for drug addiction and had become a gym regular as part of her recovery, even teaching CrossFit classes. She’d accepted that she had to eat every two hours — she would get hangry if she didn’t — and that she battled relentless cravings for sugar and carbs.

But during a monthlong nutritional challenge that included giving up grains, dairy, added sugar, and processed foods, Urban was surprised to discover that in her sobriety she had essentially replaced drugs with food. She was using sugar to numb and distract herself so she could avoid feeling her emotions.

“Without access to the carb-dense processed foods I had relied on, I was forced to find other ways to self-soothe, comfort myself, and relieve anxiety,” she writes.

That realization spurred her to dig deeper into the roots of emotional-eating patterns. She’s since made it a mission to help free people from their food anxiety — not just by changing their diets but by changing their thinking.

What Is Food Freedom?

Urban defines food freedom as “feeling empowered to make the food decisions that feel right for you in that moment.”

She emphasizes “in that moment” because true freedom means you’re free to choose based on a range of factors — nutritional, sure, but also social and emotional.

“This morning at breakfast, my husband ordered this croissant-waffle kind of combination, and it looked amazing, but I know how gluten impacts me,” Urban says. “It makes me bloated, it makes my skin break out, and I have book-tour events for the next three days. It was not worth it for me, so I declined. [And] at no point did I feel deprived.”

She has realized that she has the final say over her own food decisions. “I can always say yes. If I want to eat croissant waffles every single day of the week, I can do that.”

Food is social, cultural, familial. “It can be love and can be comfort and can be joy and can be bonding,” Urban says. That’s why she focuses on the importance of choice. Food freedom doesn’t mean eating everything willy-nilly, regardless of how it affects you. It means making choices based on your own sense of what you need.

How To Relax Your Food Vigilance

These strategies can help you regain confidence in eating while still honoring your body’s needs.

Learn about your symptoms.

Not knowing the origins of your digestive distress can lead to a feeling of helplessness and fear around food. By contrast, learning what’s behind your symptoms can reveal a world of choices you didn’t know you had.

Hilary Davidson, a journalist and novelist, suffered from gastrointestinal distress, painful mouth ulcers, migraine, and skin rashes from the age of 8; at one point she was taking five different medications for her symptoms. Finally, at 32, she was diagnosed with celiac disease.

Her diagnosis felt freeing, Davidson says. Once she understood what was causing her distress, she could take her health into her own hands. She quit gluten and no longer needed her prescription meds. She now helps other people with celiac disease, through her website and Substack newsletter, Gluten-Free Guidebook.

Davidson gets emails from readers who’ve just been diagnosed — or from their family members who are unsure how to proceed. “Sometimes people think the whole household will have to be gluten-free, or that they can’t go to restaurants unless the entire place is gluten-free.”

Fortunately, neither of those things is true. “I understand that people feel scared by the diagnosis,” she says. “It can make people feel [like] their world is smaller, instead of realizing now the information is in your hands to expand your world now. You have this one thing that you have to avoid and everything else is open to you.”

Keep a food journal.

Marc David, MA, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, suggests journaling and keeping a written inventory of your beliefs about food and diet. Write down everything that you believe is good and bad for you, he advises. Then go over that list and ask yourself if, at any point, you’re being extreme.

“Can I include some of these ‘bad’ foods in my diet — especially if I’m going to eat them anyway?” David says. Unless you’re restricting for specific health reasons, like an allergy or celiac disease, the answer could be yes, at least provisionally. This gives you one more dietary choice — and one fewer food item to feed your anxiety.

Journaling is also a great way to track your physical responses to certain foods. Baiocchi tried this and discovered that, while gluten is a hard no for him, dairy was sometimes OK. This offered him a whole class of foods — and a less restrictive diet.

Keeping this type of journal can help you make more conscious, informed decisions while building your confidence. Tracking your physical and emotional reactions to certain foods can train you to begin tuning in to your body.

Trust yourself.

Trusting yourself is key to feeling more relaxed around food. Millner, who works with people healing from eating disorders, says that “diet culture takes us away from any kind of trusting relationship with our body and makes it all about external choices.”

She points out that relying on external sources to help us decide what to eat can quickly morph into fear-based decision-making. “Diet culture makes us afraid of food because it tells us to fear weight gain,” she says. “Freedom happens when we stop making decisions about food based on a set of rules or a set of external mandates and are able to tune in to our body’s needs.”

David likens food anxiety to dissociation. When you’re feeling anxiety about food, he says, you’re not in your body — you’re only in your head. He suggests picturing your breath in your body, literally breathing into your upper body, your lower body, your feet. Take five or 10 slow, deep breaths before you start eating to ground yourself.

“The body is a very wise animal,” he notes. “We just have to start to listen to it more.”

Free food from morality.

Urban grew up with older aunts and cousins who measured their food choices in moral terms. “Every time we got together for coffee or a holiday it was, ‘This pie is going straight to my hips,’ or ‘I’m saving my calories for wine,’ or ‘She’s being so good — she’s not eating dessert today,’” she recalls.

Those experiences led Urban to moralize her own food choices. Learning to “uncouple morality from food” was a gradual process for her.

Today, she reports that she hasn’t felt guilty about or around food for many years. She also counsels people to change their moral approach to food. If someone says, “I feel so guilty I ate those chips,” she advises them to correct it with, “Excuse me, no I don’t feel guilty — I haven’t done anything wrong.” Consistently checking our thoughts and words for food-related value judgments can make a world of difference.

David concurs. “Food freedom is not about morality with food, with some foods being good and some foods being bad,” he says, adding that all-or-nothing thinking contributes to anxiety, so reducing it can help.

Slow down.

For many people, speed-eating is a sign of food anxiety. “When they eat, they eat fast, because they’re thinking food is the enemy,” David explains. “Whenever you encounter the enemy, you want to get it over with.”

When we eat quickly, the brain doesn’t have enough time to register the experience. “When the brain doesn’t experience taste, pleasure, aroma, satisfaction — what does it do?” asks David. “It says, I’m hungry. And you keep eating.”

Slowing down at mealtimes can be as simple as setting down your fork between bites or looking up and out the window for a moment. Pausing in this way can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, turning on the relaxation response so your body enters the rest and digest phase.

“We’re seeking taste. We’re seeking satisfaction. That is the biological imperative,” says David. “You can only experience those when you’re relaxed.”

Reframe food as a friend.

When you’ve been thinking of food as your enemy, learning to see it as a friend won’t happen overnight. So David suggests focusing on one simple, neutral fact: Humans must eat. “Make peace with the fact that we are designed to seek food, to eat food, to enjoy food, and to need food for our biological survival.”

Gentleness is key to successful habit change, as well. When working with her clients, Millner doesn’t try to go right from an eating disorder to flexible and fluid eating. “There has to be a middle step,” she explains. “And, usually, that middle step is making sure that meals and snacks happen every day at certain times, that people are fully nourished.”

This might sound like rigid discipline, but structure can be its own kind of freedom, she says. “It’s coming from a place of healing and not a place of the eating disorder or the dieting mind.”

Ward sees a lot of people in her practice who suffer from food allergies and sensitivities. Even when a person has eliminated problem foods and begun to recover from symptoms, fear can linger.

Her goal is to help them rebuild their relationship with food, which involves learning to see food not as their enemy but as part of their medicine. “That’s really what we practice here,” she says. “Food as medicine.”

Urban takes it one step further, advising her readers to “keep your diet broad and joyful.” Even if you must avoid certain foods to maintain your health, you can still appreciate and enjoy the foods you can have, she notes. Eating in a joyful, sustainable, and satisfying way can be just as supportive as the foods you choose.

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Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) can be hard on your gut and heart — and they may also affect your brain, according to several recent studies. ­

Researchers haven’t found an exact mechanism for this, but they suspect that the chemicals used in UPF production may hurt our vascular health and harm our brains — all while displacing healthy ­nutrients and fiber from our diets. Here are some of the findings.

Higher ­Dementia Risk: People who eat about two servings per week of highly processed red meat — such as hot dogs, bacon, sausages, and bologna — have a 14 percent higher risk of dementia compared with those who eat less than three servings a month. That’s among the results of a 43-year study following more than 130,000 Americans delivered at the 2024 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

Conversely, the researchers found that replacing one serving of processed red meat with a serving of nuts, beans, or tofu every day may lower dementia risk by 20 percent.

Declines in Cognitive Performance: In a study of 10,775 Brazilians that was published in 2022, those who got more than 20 percent of their daily calories from UPFs had a 28 percent faster rate of decline in their cognitive performance and executive function. The study doesn’t specify the UPFs consumed, but the authors note that common examples of UPFs include processed meats, snack foods, breakfast cereals, sugar-sweetened beverages, ready-to-eat frozen meals, and more.

Increased Chance of Mental Health Disorders: A 2022 meta-review published in the journal Nutrients examined 17 inter­national studies with a combined 385,541 participants. The researchers concluded that the more UPFs participants consumed, the greater their risk of depression and anxiety. On the other hand, whole foods supported better mental health. In the authors’ words: “These findings build upon the extensive body of evidence that demonstrates healthier dietary patterns … are associated with reduced risk of mental disorders such as depression.”

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Most Americans — 85 percent — consume caffeine daily. While coffee is often the go-to pick-me-up, energy drinks are also popular, especially among young people. Recognizing this demand, many coffee shops and fast-food chains have introduced “charged” drinks to their menus.

Branded with enticing names and vibrant designs, these beverages promise a quick kick. The allure is further amplified by flavor varieties reminiscent of candy, blurring the line between a fun treat and a potentially harmful stimulant.

Despite their playful appearance, many charged drinks have high levels of caffeine — often as much as the amount in a cup of coffee, or significantly more. They also contain sugar, artificial sweeteners, and natural stimulants such as guarana. This combo can lead to a range of adverse health issues, particularly in children and teenagers whose bodies are still developing, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Panera Bread recently resolved a lawsuit over its Charged Lemonade, which was linked to the death of a college student with a heart condition. The suit alleged that Panera failed to ­adequately warn consumers about the drink’s caffeine levels. The company faces three additional lawsuits filed for similar reasons.

30% of young people regularly consume energy drinks. It’s the second-most popular dietary supplement among children and adolescents.

A large Charged Lem­onade reportedly contained as much as 390 milligrams of caffeine — equivalent to four or five cups of coffee and just below the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) safe level of 400 mg for adults.

This legal action brought national attention to the ­potential dangers of charged drinks and pushed Panera to discontinue sales of the beverage.

Mixed drinks containing alcohol and caffeine are popular among young adults as well. Such beverages can heighten some of the harmful health effects of the two drugs and increase the likelihood of over­consumption, because caffeine may mask the sense of intoxication.

Caffeine’s consequences vary from person to person and are dose dependent. Ads for energy drinks maintain they increase energy and improve athletic performance and metabolism. Numerous studies associate the drinks’ effects on children and adolescents with an increased risk of developing attention disorders and hyperactivity as well as increased blood pressure and arterial stiffness.

Some of the risks of high caffeine intake include increased anxiety, sleep disturbance, dependence, and even cardiac arrest. Although the FDA has not set a safe level for children, the American Academy of Pediatrics warns that “stimulant-­containing ­energy drinks have no place in the diets of children or adolescents.”

There are no specific U.S. restric­tions or requirements for the sale or labeling of energy drinks. Their caffeine content can vary significantly, and inconsistent, unreliable labeling practices often make it difficult for consumers to know how much they’re taking in.

This article originally appeared as “Charged Drinks Can Pack a Dangerous Punch” in the March/April 2025 issue of Experience Life.

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Melissa Small was struggling. The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) she’d kept in check by modifying her diet and keeping tabs on her stress was worsening, and her job as a high school teacher in Dallas wasn’t helping. The inflexibility of her classroom schedule made her most pressing symptom — a sudden, urgent need to use the bathroom — incredibly stressful.

“I couldn’t just go to the bathroom whenever I needed to; I had to plan it in advance.” (Not keen on being known for her bowel health, Small is a pseudonym.)

Then, while visiting family, Small noticed her father-in-law reading Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food by Chris van Tulleken, PhD. Intrigued, she bought herself a copy. Her aha moment came when she read about studies linking food additives to IBS: “That’s when I started looking at food differently.”

For years, Small and her husband had been careful about their diets. They’d been gluten-free since their son was diagnosed with autism, and they leaned on foods the family could share, like gluten-free frozen pizzas and paleo frozen entrees.

When Small started looking more closely at their ingredient lists, she was surprised. The organic, gluten-free macaroni and cheese and premarinated chicken they liked were full of chemical additives. Even her tea and nutritional supplements had fillers and flavorings.

She decided to ditch these processed foods and simplify her family’s diet. “It was a big learning curve,” she recalls. “But once I got a few staples down, it became easier.”

Two weeks in, Small realized she no longer needed to bolt to the bathroom. She also wasn’t tempted by the weekend fast-food splurges that her husband and son enjoyed, she says. “It just tastes strange to me now.”

The most unexpected change was weight loss. Six months after simplifying her diet, Small had lost nearly 40 pounds. Her meals made with fresh, minimally processed foods satisfy her for hours. When she does get hungry, she eats fruit and nuts.

Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) make up an estimated 73 percent of the American food supply. As of 2018, UPFs accounted for 57 percent of the average adult’s daily calories; for kids, it was closer to 70 percent.

Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) make up an estimated 73 percent of the American food supply. As of 2018, UPFs accounted for 57 percent of the average adult’s daily calories; for kids, it was closer to 70 percent.

Studies have found that just a 10 percent increase in ultraprocessed food consumption leads to a 12 percent increased risk of cancer and heart disease, a 15 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes, a 21 percent increased risk of depressive symptoms, and a 14 percent higher risk of death from all causes.

“Ultraprocessed foods are not made with human health in mind — in fact, human health is disregarded in their creation,” says Stephen Devries, MD, a preventive cardiologist and executive director of the educational nonprofit Gaples Institute. “We are consuming quantities and types of foods in ways that humans have never done before, and we are getting results that we’ve never witnessed before.”

Decoding “Ultraprocessed”

Most food is processed before we eat it — yet it’s the degree of processing that matters. Minimally processed foods, like canned tomatoes and frozen peas, are at one end of the spectrum. Further along are artisanal cheeses, plain yogurt, and simple breads — foods that necessarily involve transformation of basic elements like milk and flour to become edible.

At the far opposite end are neon breakfast cereals, plastic-encased frozen entrees, soft drinks, and bags of crunchy snacks. These are essentially food products, or ultraprocessed foods.

Coined in 2009, “ultraprocessed” refers to mass-produced foods built from extracts, like sugar, salt, and fat. Each extract is typically modified through chemical processes, including bleaching, deodorizing, and hydrogenating, before being mixed with preservatives and other additives to give the food color, texture, and flavor. Finally, it’s molded into a food-ish shape before being wrapped in plastic, boxed, and put on a truck to be shipped off and sold.

This might sound like science fiction, but it is the norm in much contemporary food production. In this respect, unfortunately, a regular frozen pizza and a gluten-free frozen pizza aren’t all that different.

“This is pulling foods apart to the cellular or molecular level and recombining them with all the additives to make them taste like whatever food companies want,” says Barry Popkin, PhD, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of public health. “It’s almost as if they take sawdust, recombine it with emulsifiers and other additives, then add colors and flavors.”

Food Science 3.0

Over the past 25 years, Americans have reportedly cut consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in half. They’ve also begun to eat more whole grains, vegetables, and fruit along with more plant protein.

In spite of that good news, Americans continue to experience metabolic problems, including type 2 diabetes. And as public concerns about trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup have become more pronounced, food companies have begun replacing them with additives such as artificial sweeteners. This suggests the persistence of widespread metabolic issues can’t be blamed on added sugars alone. (See “The Trouble With Artificial Sweeteners” to learn how they may be setting back our weight-loss efforts.)

So researchers in the nutrition field have begun to examine the ­effects of ultraprocessing, says Laura Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH, a professor of health policy at the University of California, San Francisco.

Industrial food processing has been around since the early 20th century. It began as a way to produce foods with a long shelf life so they could be shipped around the country. “It was all very reasonable,” says Schmidt.

But by the 1980s, food companies had begun to shift away from routine techniques, like preserving and freezing, to ultraprocessing. This meant combining the cheapest ingredients — often monocrops, like corn, soy, and wheat — with additives for flavor. Significant industrial manipulation is required to make these foods taste like anything at all.

One way to identify a UPF is to consider whether it could be made in a home kitchen, says Filippa Juul, PhD, a nutritional epidemiologist at SUNY Downstate School of Public Health. Many of their ­ingredients, such as emulsifiers, aren’t available to home cooks.

Similarly, many processing techniques used to make UPFs, including hydro­genation and extrusion, require industrial machines.

Over the last 20 years, nutrition science has shifted its attention away from a strict focus on vitamins and minerals to the effect of dietary patterns, like the Mediterranean diet, says Juul. A focus on processing is the next evolutionary step. (Learn why these six foods in the Mediterranean diet are so good for your health — and how to incorporate more of them into your diet.)

Someone eating a Mediterranean diet could still consume many ultraprocessed foods: mass-produced whole-grain breads, plant-based margarines, and artificially sweetened yogurt. In these cases, someone’s food-related health problems may persist even as they do their best to follow the guidance.

“Even eating less meat isn’t necessarily healthier if you’re substituting it with highly processed plant-based meat alternatives,” Juul says. “You have to understand the quality of your food.”

How Ultraprocessed Foods Can Wreak Metabolic Havoc

There are several hypotheses about how UPFs harm the body, though there’s still no consensus about the exact mechanism that causes the damage. Still, the research is moving quickly, says Schmidt. “Finding . . . [that mechanism] is the holy grail of nutrition science right now.” These are some of those theories.

Calorie Density

In 2019, a study correlated UPFs and weight gain for the first time. The randomized controlled trial, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, divided 20 healthy adults into two groups. For two weeks, one group ate only ultraprocessed foods while the other ate foods that were minimally processed. Then the groups switched diets and continued for two more weeks.

To increase the study’s accuracy, participants lived at the research center. Their meals contained an identical number of calories and grams of sugar, fat, sodium, fiber, and macronutrients. At mealtimes, both groups had an hour to eat as much or as little as they chose.

Researchers found that the subjects who were eating the UPFs consumed about 500 calories more per day than those eating minimally processed foods. After two weeks, members of the UPF group had gained an average of about 2 pounds.

By the end, researchers found that the subjects who were eating the UPFs consumed about 500 calories more per day than those eating minimally processed foods. After two weeks, members of the UPF group had gained an average of about 2 pounds.

Speed of Digestion

The body perceives industrially processed foods as essentially prechewed and predigested. That perception produces a host of repercussions along the digestive tract, starting in the mouth. Studies have shown that the longer a food must be chewed before it’s swallowed, the more satisfying it is to eat and the fuller a person feels afterward.

Research has also shown that people who chew their food longer consume fewer calories. In the NIH study, participants eating the ultraprocessed diet swallowed more calories per minute than did their counterparts. The combined eating speed and caloric density is what led to the extra 500 calories a day.

When we eat whole foods, the foods’ cells don’t break down completely, explains Juul. She compares whole ­almonds and almond flour: Whole almonds involve some serious chewing. After you swallow, your body absorbs only about 75 percent of their calories, she says, because the nut’s structure is still partly intact.

Once almonds are turned into almond flour, a higher percentage of their calories is absorbed into the bloodstream. This speed of absorption affects everything from blood-sugar levels to satiety hormones.

Evidence has suggested that highly palatable foods can dampen the body’s satiety signals, which can lead to over­eating. As van Tulleken writes, “The signals that tell you to stop eating haven’t evolved to handle food this soft and ­easily digested.”

(After the gut, the mouth contains the most diverse microbial community in the body. As a result, the oral microbiome has a significant influence on your overall health. Learn more at “Everything You Need to Know About the Oral Microbiome.”)

Missing Nutrients

Studies suggest that UPFs are crowding out the nutrient-dense foods on our plates. In a 2021 meta-analysis, researchers noted a correlation between the increasing number of UPFs in meals and decreasing amounts of dietary fiber, protein, potassium, zinc, niacin, and vitamins A, C, D, E, and B12.

Novel Molecules

On a cellular level, nutrients exist in a certain structure within a food, and synergies exist between different nutrients and non-nutrients, says Juul. This is known as the food matrix, and it’s destroyed by industrial processing.

Our digestive system is designed to slowly and methodically break down a food’s matrix to glean the greatest nourishment for the body — and specifically for the microbiome.

Likewise, our signaling pathways evolved over millions of years to distinguish good molecules from bad. A molecule that is a shade different from one found in food can cause real problems with human chemistry, says Robert ­Rountree, MD, a Boulder, Colo.-based integrative family medicine practitioner. “Xenobiotic molecules gum up the works.”

Inflamed Gut

New evidence suggests that food ­additives, such as emulsifiers, thickeners, and artificial sweeteners, may cause gut inflammation. This can lead to a variety of gastrointestinal issues, including IBS.

Presently, more than 60 types of emulsifiers are used in UPFs, including polysorbate 80, carboxymethylcellulose, and carrageenan. Studies have found that mice exposed to these substances developed gut inflammation after 12 weeks.

There’s also a potential cocktail effect from multiple food additives in a single UPF, as well as in the many combinations that might be eaten in a handful of foods at one sitting.

“All of us are subjects in a food experiment that humans have never encountered before,” says Devries. “As a result, we are seeing a greater spectrum of digestive problems than have ever been observed before.”

The Hyperpalatability Problem

We must eat to survive, and food needs to be appealing for us to eat it. Still, many UPFs are so palatable that it’s nearly impossible to stop consuming them, even when we’re not hungry. That’s a problem.

Tera Fazzino, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, became curious about the impulse to keep eating when we’re full. Trained in addiction science, Fazzino noticed “certain foods had a substance-y vibe, but there was no clear definition of what it was about those foods that made them so difficult to resist.”

She began studying the synergy of fat, sodium, and sugar and how combining these could make foods hyperpalatable. She found that these foods were the ones that showcased sweet, salty, and fatty flavors together; they were far more craveable than foods that featured only one of those attributes.

The right combinations of fat and salt can increase consumption of a food by up to 30 percent, according to some research, and foods featuring fat-carbohydrate combinations are better at activating the brain’s reward circuitry than foods offering just fat or just carbohydrates.

Ultraprocessed foods and hyperpalatable foods are not the same, but there are important overlaps. Fazzino points to the popularity of certain crackers. “It’s easy to think that if you are snacking on a cracker, it’s a step above, say, chips, but they can be equally hard to stop eating.”

“UPFs are overconsumed in a way that healthy foods are not because food companies titrate unhealthy ingredients to appeal to common cravings,” he explains. “And blaming people for not having the willpower to control their appetite for these foods is not appropriate.”

And that’s by design, says Devries. “UPFs are overconsumed in a way that healthy foods are not because food companies titrate unhealthy ingredients to appeal to common cravings,” he explains. “And blaming people for not having the willpower to control their appetite for these foods is not appropriate.”

So how do we use this information to make better choices and not just feel freaked out by food?

“I try to eat things that come directly from nature as much as I can,” says Fazzino. But she also acknowledges that our food environment is saturated with ultraprocessed foods, so she tries not to sweat the small stuff.

Mary Purdy, MS, RDN, an integrative and functional dietitian and managing director of the Nutrient Density Alliance, encourages individuals to pause and notice how they feel after they’ve eaten UPFs. “If you were to slow down and really savor it, you might realize it doesn’t taste as good as you thought.”

6 Ways to Cut Back on Ultraprocessed Foods

Perfection is the enemy of the good, especially when you’re trying to cut down on ultraprocessed foods (UPFs), says Nichola Ludlam-Raine, RD, author of How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed: Your 4-Week Plan for Life-Changing Healthier Eating Habits.

UPFs account for almost three-quarters of America’s food supply, meaning the hunt for minimally processed foods can be tricky, especially in social situations. Ludlam-Raine encourages people to be gentle with themselves rather than strive for perfection. These are six of her top tips for cutting back.

1) Focus on addition rather than subtraction.

Instead of trying to quit UPFs cold turkey, start by crowding them out. Fill your plate with vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats.

“This approach shifts the mindset from restriction to abundance,” says Ludlam-Raine. Over time, your palate will adapt to whole foods and your UPF ­cravings will diminish.

2) Emphasize protein and produce.

Protein supports satiety, mus­cle repair, and overall health; the fiber in produce regulates blood sugar and supports gut health. Together, they help you stay full longer, provide essential nutrients, and nourish healthy bacteria in your microbiome.

Instead of a handful of chips, pair a sliced apple with cheese or celery sticks with nut butter.

3) Buy cute, reusable snack bags and use them liberally.

Food companies know fun, attractive packaging makes UPFs even more appealing. Likewise, attractive reusable containers can re-create the visual and emotional appeal of packaged snacks, which might make you more likely to bring them along and choose them over anything the vending machine has to offer.

4) Keep fizzy drinks at room temperature.

Creating a minor inconvenience gives you a moment to make a more deliberate choice. If you keep flavored fizzy drinks, like sodas and seltzers, at room temperature, the time it takes to cool them down (even if it’s just adding ice) introduces a delay that can reduce their appeal. During the wait, you might decide to opt for plain water.

5) Make your own dressing.

Avoiding bottled salad dressing is an easy way to reduce your intake of emulsifiers, stabilizers, and flavorings. And homemade salad dressings are easy and quick to make: Put equal parts olive oil and vinegar in a small jar, add a dollop of Dijon mustard and some salt and pepper, cover, and shake. Customize by adding lemon juice, a diced shallot, some grated garlic, or green herbs to taste. (Try one of these easy and healthy salad dressings that you can make at home.)

6) Apply the 80/20 rule.

Cutting out UPFs completely can feel restrictive and lead to a sense of failure if you slip up. Aim to make minimally processed foods about 80 percent of your diet. ­Allow some flexibility with UPFs for that other 20 percent. Avoiding a deprivation mindset helps you maintain a healthy relationship with food — and that supports good habits over time.

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Ultraprocessed foods have long dominated the average American’s diet: They currently account for approximately 60 percent of our daily caloric intake. But it’s only in recent years that evidence has emerged to calculate the effects of this fare on our health — and the accumulated research may finally force government regulators into action.

The latest studies show that our junk-food habit is a major contributor to a variety of chronic diseases. It may even be playing a role in lowering the nation’s average life expectancy.

The results of a review of 14 meta-analyses involving 9.9 million people show that those whose diets contained higher levels of ultraprocessed foods were some 50 percent more likely than those who ate moderate amounts to die from cardiovascular disease. They were also more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes as well as anxiety and other mental health conditions.

The study, published in the BMJ, goes on to link such dietary choices with an increased risk of all-cause mortality, obesity, depression, and sleep problems.

“The multinational companies that produce ultraprocessed foods are just as, if not more, powerful than tobacco companies were in the last century.”

“The adverse health outcomes associated with ultraprocessed foods may not be fully explained by their nutrient composition and energy density alone but also by physical and chemical properties associated with industrial processing methods, ingredients, and byproducts,” the authors write.

Their findings reinforce the results of another recent commentary, published in the American Journal of Medicine, in which physicians at Florida Atlantic University consider the connection between junk-food consumption and myriad chronic diseases. The “novel ingredients” in these foods — various emulsifiers, maltodextrin, and other additives — are foreign invaders “never before encountered by human physiology.”

They can cause havoc in the gut microbiome, triggering an inflammatory response that promotes disease.

Corresponding author Dawn Harris Sherling, MD, and her colleagues believe that high junk-food consumption may partly explain why life expectancy in the United States has decreased in recent years.

“The multinational companies that produce ultraprocessed foods are just as, if not more, powerful than tobacco companies were in the last century.”

The mounting evidence linking ultraprocessed fare to chronic disease and shortened lifespans mirrors research in the last century that gradually raised public awareness of the health hazards of smoking — and eventually forced the government to mandate warnings on tobacco products and limit their marketing.

The federal dietary-guidelines committee is reportedly considering some response, but Sherling doubts that we’ll see regulatory action anytime soon. “The multinational companies that produce ultraprocessed foods are just as, if not more, powerful than tobacco companies were in the last century,” she says in a press release about the commentary. “And it is unlikely that governments will be able to move quickly on policies that will promote whole foods and discourage the consumption of ultraprocessed foods.”

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Regularly eating large amounts of sugar, particularly added sugar, can trigger cellular inflammation, which can lead to a range of health issues, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, candida overgrowth, and autoimmune disorders. Because sugar activates the brain’s reward center, causing it to release dopamine and beta-endorphins, it can be more addictive than other foods.

People with naturally lower levels of beta-endorphins get a bigger rush from sweets, too, notes Kathleen DesMaisons, PhD, author of Potatoes Not Prozac: Simple Solutions for Sugar Addiction. The subsequent rush–crash cycle can also spark mood dysregulation and fatigue.           

Start by limiting the usual sugar suspects — think desserts, sodas, cereals. Then watch for other items that sneak sugar among their ingredients: ketchup, spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce, fat-free yogurt. (For packaged food, find label-reading tips here.)

When in doubt, focus on consuming more whole foods so you don’t need to stress about the labels. Though whole foods such as fruit contain naturally occurring sugar, they also offer fiber, which reduces the impact on your blood sugar (but be wary of processed fruit juice, which lacks stabilizing fiber). If a sugar craving hits, reach for a glass of water and a snack with protein, healthy fat, and fiber.

Find strategies to tame a sweet tooth in the articles below.

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Take Back Your Taste Buds

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One Healthy Habit

For more inspiration and other challenges, please visit One Healthy Habit.

The post ONE HEALTHY HABIT: Cut Your Sugar Consumption appeared first on Experience Life.

There are any number of plausible ways to explain why average life expectancy in the United States has declined in recent years and now pales alongside that of most developed countries. COVID certainly has had something to do with it, and our opioid epidemic has taken its toll. Plus, our troubled healthcare system — including the dysfunctional nursing home industry — has probably played a role as well. But recent studies have also been pointing to a distinctly American behavior to account for the disturbing trend: our addiction to junk food.

Last fall, for instance, French researchers revealed a possible link between consuming high amounts of the emulsifiers common to industrially manufactured convenience food and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease among middle-aged people with no history of heart disease. Though strictly observational, the study included a large sample (more than 95,000 participants) and the results, published in The British Medical Journal, did not change upon further testing.

“Despite the moderate magnitude of the associations,” the authors note, “these findings may have important public health implications given that these food additives are used ubiquitously in thousands of widely consumed ultraprocessed food products.”

And earlier this month, a research team at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) cited several earlier studies to make the case against ultraprocessed foods in The American Journal of Medicine, arguing that our gastrointestinal tracts aren’t designed to properly digest the various additives contained in these products, causing a wide variety of bodily distress.

“Ultraprocessed foods are likely to play major roles in a myriad of diseases, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, a variety of cancers, and even mental health disorders,” writes lead study author Dawn Harris Sherling, MD, FACP, an associate professor of medicine at FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine.

“Ultraprocessed foods are likely to play major roles in a myriad of diseases, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, a variety of cancers, and even mental health disorders.”

Sherling goes on to describe the “novel ingredients” in these products — various emulsifiers, maltodextrin, and other additives — as foreign invaders “never before encountered by human physiology.” This can cause havoc in the gut microbiome, triggering an inflammatory response that promotes chronic disease. To drive home her point, she notes that ultraprocessed fare now makes up nearly 60 percent of the average American diet compared with about 20 percent of people’s diets in countries reporting lower rates of serious illness and longer life expectancy.

Fast food, salty snacks, and sugary drinks have been around for the better part of the last hundred years, of course, but the marketing of convenience food really hit its stride in the years following World War II, and it overwhelmed the taste buds and eating patterns of my baby boom generation. The effects, some experts suggest, have lingered well into our dotage.

“An increased consumption of ultraprocessed foods and decreased consumption of minimally processed foods among older adults in recent years may reflect the food environment during their childhood and adolescence,” explain the authors of a study published in 2022 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. “This generation of older adults grew up during a time when ultraprocessed foods were increasingly available and marketed in the United States, which may have influenced their preferences and dietary habits.”

I can’t help recalling with some vague wonder the Swanson TV dinners, the Jeno’s pizzas, and the Chung King chow mein Mom would serve us on those rare occasions when she allowed herself to take a break from scratch cooking. Those meals represented a refreshing change from our dreary dinner regimen as well as an attempt — however tentative — to keep pace with the fast-evolving American food culture of the 1950s and early ’60s. Convenience food back then just felt so modern.

It would take decades of research and consumer activism before the Food and Drug Administration would mandate that ingredient lists appear on some of these products. Meanwhile, food manufacturers and their scientists gradually perfected recipes and formulations that made their products more addictive, capturing and retaining consumers of all ages while paying lip service to the harmful effects of their artistry.

Sherling compares these companies with their counterparts in the tobacco industry, which spent decades deflecting concerns about lung cancer, emphysema, and other diseases their products caused until the federal government finally took action. But she doubts we’ll see a similar effort to limit advertising for junk food — which she calls the new “silent killer” — or mandate tougher product warnings anytime soon.

Doctors, nurses, researchers, and policymakers exercise much less influence over our collective eating habits than the scientists who create the addictive pleasures of ultraprocessed food and the marketers who whet our appetites for it.

“The multinational companies that produce ultraprocessed foods are just as, if not more, powerful than tobacco companies were in the last century, and it is unlikely that governments will be able to move quickly on policies that will promote whole foods and discourage the consumption of ultraprocessed foods,” she argues. “Importantly, healthcare providers also should remain cognizant of the difficulties that many of our patients have in being able to afford and find healthier options, which calls for a broader public health response.”

That’s a tall order for our brittle healthcare system. For all their good intentions, doctors, nurses, researchers, and policymakers exercise much less influence over our collective eating habits than the scientists who create the addictive pleasures of ultraprocessed food and the marketers who whet our appetites for it. I’m happy to report that it’s been more than a half century since I last dug into one of those Swanson’s TV dinners, and the golden arches long ago lost their allure. Maybe I’ve managed to loosen junk food’s grip on my appetite over the years.

Just don’t open a bag of Doritos while I’m in the vicinity.

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