Is This the End of Bread? Why the US is Banning These Ingredients

0:00Welcome to Catching Up With The Royals, a brand new show with me Richard Coles. And me, Emily Andrews. Every week we'll be going beyond the headlines, lifting the lid, and what life is really like behind the palace walls. Hello, sir. Good morning. I'm The Sun's new royal correspondent. Oh, he said, look at me up and down. Things are looking up. We'll be diving into the moments everyone's talking about. What does the world owe you if all of a sudden you've handed back your crown? Meghan and Harry can't keep hold of their staff. We'll reveal the secrets of an organisation usually shrouded in mystery and explore defining moments of royal history to see how the past still shapes the monarchy today.

0:38Now, you actually knew Princess Diana. I think one of the ways she acquired power was through that relationship with the present. But before that interview, no-one had really spoken and been so open. Was that a game-changer? So join us every week wherever you get your podcasts, on YouTube and on Saturdays on 5 as we catch up with the royals.

1:04Hello and welcome back to the Unprocessed Truth. This week's episode is going to get into a hot topic that everyone is debating all over the internet right now. The US have released new dietary guidelines. And you think, well, who cares who follows the guidelines anyway? Well, the reality is I believe this could reset 50 years of food mistakes. Why should this matter in the UK even? Because this is the US guidelines, right? Well, there's a big reason. Because for decades, we were told to fear fat, trim meat, base meals on grains. And the industry did exactly what it was incentivized to do. Created low-fat products, pumped in refined starch and sugars, slapped on marketing health halos, and sold us snacks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

1:59The result, more ultra processed food, more snacking and worse metabolic health. Now, the US has sent a real new and big signal to the world. Real food first, protein matters, added sugar needs to come down, UPFs can do one and alcohol should be pared back. And finally, full fat dairy no longer is shunned like it was in previous guidelines. So we know the guidelines don't cook your dinner. Most people don't actually follow the guidelines. But what it does do is it steers industry. It will steer school meals. It will steer hospital menus. It will steer retailer shelves and food companies research and development.

2:47So this is a nudge in the right direction that's going to have a huge impact on what the food industry is going to do. But let's rewind a little bit. Let's go back 50 years from the late 1970s onwards and find out what happened. Well, there was Ansel Keys, the famous scientist who decided to demonize fat. Turns out he was paid by the sugar industry to manipulate his findings. And this message got incredible traction through the Times and other places where he was published. and the message was simplified down to avoid fat. So, you know, fat isn't good for our heart health. And so we decided to pull fat.

3:33We took out fat out of dairy products and replaced it with sugars and stabilizers and gums and starches to mimic that thick, creamy mouthfeel that we all loved. But obviously we know that isn't that healthy for us now. We snackified everything, right? Low-fat cookies, bars, cereal, everywhere. Snack, snack, snack. It's low-fat. It's under 100 calories. We know how that story turned out. And, you know, some other things weren't necessarily the industry's fault. Our lives fundamentally changed, which meant the amount of time we spent at home actually cooking food collapsed, which meant we looked for more ready-to-eat fast meals.

4:13And, you know, meat got leaner as a result. Everyone started eating 5 % steak mince. Well, now, whilst it's not a bad thing necessarily, it could be a lot better for our health. Let's take a step back. What happened over the last 50 years? Well, if you look at the data, we've actually eaten less meat. We didn't end up eating more vegetables. So what happened is we ended up eating more ultra processed food and more refined carbohydrates. And as a result, worsening metabolic health, expanding waistlines. Now, over half of the UK are overweight or obese. This is a problem. And we need to get our ways out of this.

4:51And this is why the new US guidelines can make a huge impact. So let's go into the specifics. What's actually new? Well, protein targets, big change here. So the previous guidelines were that protein should be consumed at 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. So if you're 100 kilos, you would eat 80 grams of protein in a day. now they're saying 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day so if you're 100 kilos you want to be eating 120 to 160 grams of protein in a given day which is good some studies if you want to build muscle suggest you even go up to two grams of protein per kilo of body weight in a day i have seen the science on this stuff and i am a fan.

5:47I think we should be consuming more protein. It should be the foundation of our meals. Now, added sugar is next. So previously, it said less than 10 % of total daily calories from added sugar. So about 50 grams a day or so on a 2000 calorie diet. Now, new stronger stance, no amount of added sugar or non-nutritive sweeteners are considered as part of a healthy diet. There's a practical cap of under 10 grams of added sugar per meal and children should avoid added sugars until age 10. Seems quite strict and, you know, fundamentally not something we're all going to achieve as parents straight away.

6:30But again, it's about nudging the industry in the right direction to understand what good looks like so we can make better products to make this easier for every parent out there. So that's huge. Then saturated fat, this is a contentious point that lots of influencers are shouting about and screaming about because the upper limit stays at less than 10 % of total calories. Yet the amount of meat and yogurt and dairy that the new food pyramid suggests would suggest you're probably going to eat more than 10 % of your total calories from saturated fat. But we'll come on to why this doesn't matter as much as people are arguing about in a second.

7:12Then alcohol. There's a new simpler message. It's really clear. Consume less alcohol for better health. There's no daily or numeric cutoffs. Long standing advice was one drink a day for women, two drink a days for men. But reality is no amount of alcohol is really good for our health. And the government doesn't need to tell you whether it's one glass or two or whatever. you should just consume less. So I quite like the way this is worded. Then on to dairy. Well, it used to be all about low fat and fat free dairy. The reality is now full fat dairy is an acceptable option, finally, within a healthy eating pattern and three servings a day guidance, which is great.

7:56I love dairy. It's super healthy if you buy the right ones. Then, which hasn't been seen before because usually the industry would have influenced government to take something like this out, but that hasn't happened in the US. Previously, you know, processed foods weren't really addressed. You know, they talked about sodium and sugar limits a little bit, but there was no explicit ultra-process call-out. Now, the new dietary guidelines explicitly discourage highly processed foods chips sweets sugary cereals ready to eat snacks in plain language in bold called out as something we should be avoiding that is a huge shift in government policy love it then on to grains well previously said make at least half your grains whole without a consistent serving target so it used to be the classic pyramid used to be six to eleven servings of whole grains or grains a day.

8:58So that meant wheats, cereals, refined carbs, these things are typically low in nutrition. So they shouldn't be making up the majority of your plate. So the fact that the new text emphasizes whole fiber rich grains and significantly reducing your refined carbohydrates at a lower level around two to four servings per day, that is huge. That is really, really huge because grains typically aren't the most nutritious thing on our plate so we should be eating the vegetables and the meat now the new model retires the plate and the visual which was quite simple it was quite easy for people to understand and introduces the kind of pyramid style system we had before but puts it upside down so meat and vegetables are big and large at the top and then the refined carbs are down at the bottom personal preference whether you like the plate, whether you like the pyramid, I don't really mind.

9:55It's the underlying message, which is most important. So again, big changes, big statements that are going to influence industry quite a lot. But let's take a step back again and look at why humans eat in the first place. Because I think when people get caught up in this debate and this argument about dietary guidelines and what it should be, you know, why do we eat in the first place? To answer the question properly or to understand what our guidelines should be, we have to answer the question why humans eat in the first place. Well, we don't just eat to fill up. We eat to rebuild tissue, run our metabolism and feed our brain.

10:40Hunger is our body's nutrient request form. It's essentially saying, hey, I need some amino acids, I need some essential fats, I need some vitamins, some minerals, some polyphenols, some antioxidants, and maybe some fiber to help my gut. That's what our body's asking for. It's not just saying, hey, go eat because my tummy hurts, right? If meals are nutrient-dense and we eat a nutrient-dense meal, our hunger naturally quietens down, which would then more likely prevent overeating. If meals are nutrient-poor, we keep chasing satisfaction, and more bites still undernourished. It's why you can eat a whole bag of crisps that might be a thousand calories, but you're not full.

11:21You'd keep craving more and more and more because your body's just gone, I've just eaten a load of seed oils here and not had any nutrition. Where's my nutrition? I want more. You know, what we really should be focusing and reframing our choices on is this ruthless metric. Nutrients per pound, as in how many nutrients are we getting per gram of food or per pound of spent, right? Or nutrients per 100 calories, whatever you want to frame it as. Nutrients are the thing. How many essential nutrients do I get from the food I put in my body? That is our scorecard. And meat and vegetables are the answer to that question.

12:03meat eggs dairy fish always bring complete protein bioavailable iron zinc b vitamins and a full fat matrix that carries fat soluble vitamins vegetables fruits legumes bring fiber potassium magnesium folate polyphenols the metabolic cofactors our body actually uses and that's why we eat we need those micronutrients and the ultra processed food industry has completely missed it. Ultra processed foods are engineered for flavor, for crunch, for convenience and they just forget about nutrients. They don't care about them. They're not interested. They just want a price point and they want a taste profile and that is it.

12:46So what happens is you eat more and you eat more and your body doesn't get the nutrition it needs. It stays undernourished. So then you start to crave more and then you potentially overeat and you also drift towards metabolic illness because your body isn't getting the nourishment it needs to function properly. And that's when things start to break down. So essentially, the new guidelines are fantastic because it puts nutrients first. That is the key. But let's go back to the backlash. Everyone is going to get on their high horse about with this because, hey, it's the world of social media. So everyone is going to get on their high horse.

13:25Critics online, I'm not going to mention any names are already trying to critique it. They're already trying to say these guidelines don't make sense, right? What about saturated fat? If you eat according to the guidelines, you're going to have more than 10 % of your calories from saturated fat. So this is where there's nuance. And what I mean by that is, sure, there's a 10 % of calories from saturated fat and no one's saying bathe in butter. but the point is we shouldn't fear the whole foods because the food matrix matters. So what I mean by that, saturated fat in yogurt, cheese or unprocessed meat is not the same as saturated fat in sugary, starchy desserts.

14:12Different matrix, different metabolic context, different effect in our body. So if you fix the big rocks, most of the downstream debates start to shrink. That means adequate high quality protein to trigger muscle protein synthesis plenty of plant fibers and micronutrients keeping upfs and sugars low in that context saturated fat if it lands at eight percent if it lands at 15 20 is far less important for your overall health than us arguing about these specific things than if you had 15 % saturated fat consumption in your diet, but you eat ultra processed food, you over consume calories, and you're in poor metabolic health.

15:04They are different things. So we have to consider the context. The context of saturated fat consumption is really important. Sure, there are signals that it could be really bad. But when you are metabolically healthy. There are even studies in the blue zone showing one consistent factor across all blue zones is for the people that live most to 100, they all have high cholesterol. Very interesting that. Now I'm not saying it's the answer to longevity, but what I am saying is cholesterol is a really important nutrient. Our brain is made out of cholesterol. So to think we should have zero cholesterol, limit saturated fat, and saturated fat is what's killing us, is oversimplified.

15:48There is more context here that is needed. So just one to watch out for. Now, why this matters for the UK? Well, this is America. This is their guidelines. Who cares in the UK? The reality is multinational companies run the food systems across the world. The Nestle, the Unilevers, you know these guys are not just unique to the uk they're american big institutions that sell food in america food in europe so if the u.s changes they are likely going to also change some of the food that is sold here in the uk so that is a good thing this change in the dietary guidelines is going to shift big multinational food corporations which although it's just in the US will affect the UK.

16:38Also, you know, public services, NHS, schools, prisons, you name it, these guys will start to look at what's going on across the pond in the US. And they might, just might start to change some of their ways. So it's a really good signal. And it kind of gives them permission to do it. Well, the US have done it. So if we do it, it's not that controversial anymore. You know, fundamentally, I think what we're going to see is a lot of innovation, a lot of young hungry food companies in the uk that are challenger brands that are trying to disrupt the industry they are fundamentally on this journey of making the food industry healthier and to see this from the u.s government they're going to look five years down the line and go do you know what we need to go harder on this we need to invest more in making our food system healthier and they're going to change the system so these encouragements will also help push forward the challenger brands who are really driving change in this space.

17:38For manufacturers specifically, I can tell you what they're going to do really quickly. They're going to change their R &D prioritization for 26, 27, 28, 29. They're going to look to make foods that are higher quality protein, lower in sugar. They're going to retire unnecessary emulsifiers, nitrates, colorants, refined starches, and fillers. We're already seeing it with what M &S is doing. with their simple range, which just has five or six ingredients. They are going to be looking to make products and market products that have a really good helping of protein and that ultimately are far more nutritious, right?

18:19And they're going to find more creative ways to get fruits and vegetables and meat and dairy into our diets in convenient and easy ways. This is going to be a wild time in the food industry where there's going to be so much change in innovation it's really encouraging to see to close off my ramble i am very very happy with the new u.s dietary guidelines the low fat refined carb ultra processed era is ending the new u.s guidelines are doing exactly what we've been harping on about for the last three years that is we need to push back real food, adequate protein, good fats, fewer UPFs, less alcohol, less sugar.

19:03These are the things we need to shape our food system and food environment around in the US, but also the UK, because the US is the world leader in metabolic health issues driven by diet. Now the UK is number two. So we need to follow the US pretty quickly in changing these dietary guidelines as well, because we eat for nutrition. We eat for nourishment. We eat for vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, antioxidants. That's why our body asks us to eat through hunger signals. So we need to continue to vote with our basket for more nutrient dense, nutritious food. And the industry is going to change. I promise you that I have never been more optimistic than I am today.

19:52Thanks for listening guys. Have a fantastic week and please remember to like, follow, share or comment on the podcast because it really helps us do more and spread the good word of health.