>> Speaker A: Today we're talking about ultra processed

foods, the boogeyman of modern

nutritionists. Every single

chiropractor and health person

wants to jump down the throat and tell you that

you shouldn't be eating these things. Some of them say they're going

to outlive cockroaches, the ultra processed food, and maybe

chiropractors. Others say they're the fast track

to doom. But what's the truth? Let's

dig in. As only a podcast called Fork

you can.

I am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terri Simpson,

and this is Fork U Fork

University, where we bust a few myths, make

sense of the madness, and teach you a little bit about

food as medicine.

Let's start with definitions. Ultra

processed food, or UPF

if you want to sound like smart kids, sounds

like it was forged in a laboratory by mad

scientists in lab coats cackling as they add an extra

pinch of bad for you, seeking to make

people sick because they own part of the big

pharma. But in reality, ultra

processed food simply means food that's been

heavily modified from its original state, including, including

ingredients you wouldn't find in your grandmother's

pantry like emulsifiers, um, preservatives,

stabilizers. This means everything

from your favorite gas station hot dog

to those plant based meat alternatives

that some folks like me, actually are proudly shoveling down

instead of a burger. Yes, those vegan

nuggets are ultra processed food and welcome to the

club. But I want to go through some of the myths.

Lets start with myth one. They're all

toxic and will kill you instantly.

Listen, if ultra processed foods were that

deadly, the entire American population would have

been wiped out by the mid-1990s. While some

ultra processed foods are high in salt, sugar and fats,

they are not inherently toxic.

It's about how much you eat and what else,

uh, you're pairing with them. If your diet

consists solely of neon colored cheese puffs and

soda, which sounds like my teenage son.

Yes, your health might take a hit, but

a little moderation, not a problem.

Twinkies last forever. Look, Twinkies have

a long shelf life, but they are not immortal.

They're not going to be sitting in a time capsule a thousand years from

now waiting for archaeologists to take a bite.

They contain preservatives, sure, but nothing that

defies the laws of chemistry or

thermodynamics. The myth started after a

few poorly controlled experiments on old Twinkies, but in

reality, they get stale and they get

gross like any other

food.

Myth three, my favorite. If you can't

Pronounce an ingredient. It must be bad. This is my favorite

myth because by that logic I should avoid

eating cyanocobalbumin, which

is just vitamin B12, essential for your

nervous system. And of course there are some

silly people who say, oh my God, it's cyanide

in there, it's gotta be bad, it's killing you. And of course it's

not. Not all long

complicated words are bad for you. Some

are just the scientific names for

everyday things.

Dihydrogen monoxide, that's water.

But I'll bet it get banned if you put it on

a food label. And if

you see an ingredient that says meat, well that's got to be good. All it is

is meat. Wait until we break that

down and give chemical names to every little moiety in the

meat. Uh, that will sound scary.

The real problems with ultra processed food. Well,

here's the issue. Many ultra processed foods are

designed to be hyper processed, palatable.

Meaning they hijacked your brain's reward

system. Ever wonder why you can eat an entire

family sized bag of chips in one sitting? It's not

a lack of willpower, it's science.

Those foods, by hook or crook, are

simply irresistible. Not the scientists

were smart enough to make them that way. They just sort of

stumbled into it because we all know what we like to

taste. And ultra processed foods tend to

be calorie dense, but nutrient poor. You can eat a lot of them

without getting fiber, vitamins, minerals, not that much, much

protein. Things your body needs. That's

the real danger. Not that they exist, but they can

crowd out the good stuff. They don't take that much

room. Can you eat ultra processed foods and still

be healthy? Absolutely. The key is

balance. If your diet is 80% whole foods,

fruits, veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, then

20% processed ingredients isn't just going to wreck

you. The problem is in the United States, ultra

processed food make up anywhere from 70 to 80% of the diet of

the average American. And that's where the trouble

starts. There are those people

who are reductionists,

meaning they will take ultra processed food and say, see

the problem is, pick one. The problem is, uh,

high fructose corn syrup. We can show you. High

fructose corn syrup chemically is pretty similar to glucose, which

your body needs as its metabolic currency. Or

the problem is seed oils. That's the favorite one of the

carnivore crowd. And they'll say, oh, seed oils are ultra

processed and made with hexane. And we've covered this before

folks, seed Oils are vegetable oils.

Vegetable oils, when looked at in large studies, are

healthy. Now because vegetable oils are cheap, they're

put in all sorts of stuff. Your favorite

protein bar has a lot of vegetable oil and it doesn't mean it's healthy

or unhealthy. It's your protein bar. You

can eat a lot of them. And let's be

clear, when we have sort of classified

ultra processed food by a standard, but

we don't know if there's a single ingredient in there that's bad or

not. We do know that people, when given

ultra processed food, tend to eat about

500 calories more a day. Ever wonder

why we're eating more calories in the United States and in the

western world? It's because we're eating more

ultra processed food. Some people say we just need to put more

fiber in it. It's not that simple. Some people will say the answer is more

protein. It's not that simple. People want to make this

stuff simple when it's not.

Ultra processed food has some benefits. Did

you know that? Let me give you a few. They have a strong

shelf life, a long, long, strong

shelf life. Is that bad? The Twinkies lasting

forever? No, it's not.

Why? Well, the only thing worse than

obesity is starvation. And when you have shelp

stable food, you can live through

famine. If you're going to eat only whole

unprocessed foods, let me remind you, when

you got healthy and decided to put all those fruits and vegetables in

your crisper in the refrigerator, they weren't so

crisp after a while, were they? But the

frozen fruits and vegetables picked at the ripeness, they were

fine. The canned fruits and vegetables, they were

fine. It's great if you can afford to go to and

live in a place like I do in California and go to a farmer's market and eat

that way. But even I don't. Here's the

thing. Ultra processed food

may have been a key that hit the reward

center that allowed obesity to unlock

for which we now have medications to control.

Maybe we don't have proof of that.

So it's really nice when people say you should only eat this, that

or the other thing. The answer is it's not that

simple. Yep, whole unprocessed food is the way to go.

We'd like you to be on the Mediterranean night eating those things that

are fresh and delicious. The answer is

you're not going to die if you eat some kettle

corn. And if you don't want the kettle corn,

send it to me. Ultra

processed food it's not the enemy. It's a

tool for nutrition. It can

be good, it can be bad. There's a lot of research to go

into it. So when those people who are

shirtless salesmen of supplements and scams

trying to say it's bad while they're selling you their own

version of ultra processed food, usually like this is

purified bovine liver or whatever

they sell, that's ultra

processed crap.

All right, that should be it for my rant for

today. This is Dr. Terri

Simpson was written and directed by me.

And while I am a physician, I am

not your physician. If you're going to change your diet to

a healthy diet like the Mediterranean, or an unhealthy diet like

keto or Carnivore, please consult with a western trained

physician with a board certified credentials and

a registered dietitian. Don't check with a

chiropractor. Don't check with an Eastern medicine person.

God. Don't check with the functional medicine people who want to get hundreds of

ccs of blood out of your arm and charge you a

lot, you don't need them. We were

distributed by our friends at Simpler Media, the pod God, Mr.

Evo Terra. And we were produced,

even though she never wants to admit it, by our friend

Producer Girl Production, who, when you are

listening to this, will be celebrating 15

years of CO producing this

podcast over its many years and many

forms. I don't know what you get a producer of

15 years. Probably

Xanax, then Wellbutrin.

I'm not sure. All right, thanks for

listening. Have a good week.

Hey, Ivo, what's your favorite ultra processed

food? I kind of vary between Reese's

peanut butter cups and wine.

>> Speaker B: Yeah, color me shock there, wino.

Uh, I. I can't keep chips

or snacky foods like that in the

house because, yeah, I'm that guy that will eat the

entire bag and I don't want to be that guy

anymore. So, yeah.