The Truth About Ultra Processed Foods

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0:29When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. Welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. And as always, we're here. We're your hosts. I'm Ella Mills. And I'm Rhianna Lambert. And after a decade in the wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and confusing health advice can be.

1:12So that's why we created this podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal. So last week we shared part one of our Wellness Scoop Live and this week we have got part two. so part two was a little bit different for us instead of the usual headlines trends I got to interview Rhi so obviously as you guys probably know by now she has spent the last few years researching everything around the world of ultra processed foods which is obviously everywhere such a topic for health and wellness this year so we have dived into emulsifiers stabilizers preservatives the whole lot and then you can listen catch up learn it all so I hope you guys enjoy part two of the wellness scoop live

1:56Well, thank you guys so much for the first half. We're going to do something quite different now. But we talk so much about the various different pillars of health. We've obviously got our diet. We have exercise. We have sleep. But we also have stress management. And I think if we did a show of hands of who struggles to manage their stress, pretty universal. Two hands. It's a challenge we all face. And I know we talked recently about the power of just five minutes of non-doing and just taking a moment to just be calm, be quiet. And we also want you guys to leave tonight feeling even more empowered and inspired, as we said earlier.

2:34So to kickstart the second half of tonight, we have a very special guest. This woman is absolutely amazing. I have been doing her meditation, her breath work, her yoga for years and years and years. and she is going to do a five-minute exercise of calm, of peace, of gratitude with us all. So please welcome to stage Cordelia Simpson.

3:00Hey, thank you. Thank you so, so much. Thank you so much. Hello, everyone. Hi. I'm sure a lot of you have met me on the app because you've done yoga probably with me and meditation and breath work. But today I'm really, really happy to be here with everyone and just share a really simple meditation and breath work with everyone. Something I'm super passionate about, and I know Ella and we are, is about making these things accessible for everyone. We don't have to be experts, we don't have to be professionals, like every single one of us can tap into these things. And meditation and breath work and yoga have absolutely transformed my life, and equally they can do that for all of us.

3:40So I want to start by just looking at everyone and the way you're sitting. I was in the audience a minute ago, and I know it's a lot of sort of slumping and stuff. So can I just get everyone to kind of sit up nice and straight? And also look at your feet. If your legs are crossed, uncross your legs so your feet are grounded. It's really important just to align your spine before you even begin this exercise. Okay, let's all close down the eyes. and turn our gaze inwards. Just begin by becoming aware of your breath. The soft inhale and exhale.

4:27As you breathe out, just notice the soles of your feet grounding into the floor beneath you.

4:37Feel the base of your sit bones connecting with the chair.

4:44And as you inhale, feel a lengthening through the spine from tailbone all the way up to the crown of your head. Maybe you imagine a little bit of Fred pulling you up to the ceiling of this hall. as you exhale can you relax your shoulders your face your head and neck

5:12together let's breathe in deeply and at the top of the inhale just pause and then open your mouth and let it go

5:28Repeat that. Take a deep breath in. Feel the energy rising up as the breath expands into your lungs. Pause. And then exhale and just let it go. Feel yourself grounding, arriving. one more time deep breath in through the nose feel the expansion into the lungs pause at the top and then as you exhale just release soften and let it go I want you to take your awareness to your heart space now and as you inhale again just visualize an expansion above below to the left the right in front and behind as the breath comes in and then as you exhale, feel this centering coming back to your heart, like a star shape, an expansion, inhaling outwards in all directions, six directions, above, below, to the left, the right, in front and behind, and as you exhale, this centering coming back to the spot right at the center of your heart.

6:36Continue to visualize this, but maybe now you see a color. Maybe it's red, maybe it's pink, maybe it's green, maybe it's gold. And it's a glowing, and this glow is expanding outwards, filling your entire body, maybe going beyond your physical form. And as you exhale, feel it concentrating and coming right to the center of your heart, to a tiny dot, maybe a glow. Continue to inhale and find that expansion, beyond your physical form, expanding to the room, the hall, to each other and beyond. As you exhale, feel it centering and coming in towards yourself, this tiny dot glow at the heart space. Continue to visualize this and breathe in this way.

7:31But this expansion, this glow, starts to become an energy of love, compassion, kindness, acceptance radiating out far beyond yourself. But then as you exhale, it comes back to you, knowing that you are truly worthy of those feelings as well. Continue to expand in this way, feeling your energy growing outwards. and then that focus inwards again, that balance between giving and receiving. Allow your breath to expand as you visualize this, your lungs, your belly, your chest, your back and feel the body softening as you receive and draw it inwards.

8:31Now the body is softened, the heart starts to feel open, we're going to breathe together. We're going to inhale to the count of four, three, two, one. Hold your breath at the top for four, three, two, one. exhale slowly three two one hold your breath and pause three two one inhale deeply belly back waist and chest hold the breath

9:23Exhaling belly, back, waist and chest, hold your breath.

9:37Just in your mind, I want you to say this mantra to yourselves, repeat it. When I am grateful, my heart bursts open and I feel whole. When I am grateful, my heart bursts open and I feel whole.

10:09just gently and gradually start to flicker the eyelids back open just connect again with your surroundings and come back into this moment thank you everyone

10:27I think I actually nearly could have fallen asleep on stage. Thank you, that was fantastic. Thank you so much. What a way to start. Oh my gosh, do you know what? I'm always, I kind of bang on about this the whole time, but it's because I think, again, with just so many different things going on, it's so easy to think you have to spend an hour doing something. You have to commit to a course. You have to go to a gym. You have to do all these things. And certainly for me, just five minutes of that, and I feel fundamentally completely different. And I kind of get the sense in the room that lots of us do too.

11:05And I think, again, it's just such a powerful reminder. I could feel more of the room doing it, which actually probably helped. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong at home. I'm on my own. I have to say we do it together at home, and it is helpful. Okay, so we're now moving from a moment of full serenity and calm into something fundamentally completely different, and that is a deep dive into ultra-processed food.

11:36So I think I'm in the lucky seat for this part, and Rhi has spent the last few years collating all the information out there on the conversation on ultra-processed food and putting it together into her brand new book, The Ultra-Processed Plate, which is brilliant. and I feel very lucky tonight because it's not even out yet and we are getting the exclusive deep dive into really what is going on. I'm sure you're all hearing about ultra processed food all the time. I mean it's probably the number one topic we're seeing from a health and wellness perspective in the media at the moment and there's so many mixed messages.

12:10It's so confusing but before we dive in can I just ask how many of you guys are confused about ultra processed foods? Are you trying to reduce ultra processed foods? Maybe a show of hand first. Are you confused about ultra processed foods and what's really going on? Okay. Okay, maybe like 50, 60%. And are you trying to reduce them in your diet? Oh, wow. Okay. Is anyone not trying to reduce them? Okay, so that's 100%. Okay, well, hopefully this is really helpful. Yeah, that was very helpful. Okay, so in the spirit of this, let's start at the beginning because I think before we kind of deep dive into what's an emulsifier, what's an additive, what do all of these back-of-pack ingredients mean when you're wandering around your supermarket doing your shop, let's just actually start at the beginning.

13:00When you're looking at this and you're trying to decipher the information for everybody, how are you actually defining what an ultra-processed food is? How should people be thinking about it? It's a really good question because people, once again, scientists are undecided on the one criteria that most people use. So if you've read Dr. Chris Van Tilken's book, which was, I think, groundbreaking for the subject to become more in the public domain and can catalyst, obviously, for me to write this book in the first place to take that information but make it more accessible with recent data, you have to understand what we actually mean by ultra-processed foods.

13:38So processing has actually been around for thousands of years. If you look at salt, that's how we used to preserve food. We would process it technically. The act of taking an olive and pressing it and extracting and creating olive oil from an olive is a form of processing. Putting chickpeas into a can is a form of processing. So when we move forward to what we're discussing, ultra processed foods, that's a very different sphere to discuss because it's the invention of food science at its absolute finest. And if you have a think about it, it's all the wonders of science. And you may think, why is she talking so positively about it?

14:19We will get to it. I'm not saying it's the best thing in the world. But it is quite remarkable to think we can now buy a cake that can sit on the shop shelves for several months and not go off and not spoil. And Carlos Montero, a researcher over in Brazil, developed a system called NOVA, which is what I refer to in the book. and by taking four different categories, one being minimally processed all the way up gradually, then you'd have olive oil in the middle, butter, flour, ingredients that have undergone a degree of processing. And then you go all the way up to category number four, which is ultra-processed food.

14:58So currently, that's what we're talking about. And the discussion today is on category four, but there's a lot of nuance in that category, which is why scientists are very undecided on the overall defining criteria. Yeah, we're back at, unfortunately, a whole lot of nuance and not being able to have kind of ultra-rigid, using ultra again, very rigid definitions of things. But essentially, the way to think about the difference between process and ultra-process is, in a way, like, could you make it at home? Would you have those ingredients in your cupboard? Yeah, no, it is a very simplified way of thinking about it, absolutely.

15:35Because, you know, we don't have preservatives in our cupboard at home apart from traditional sugar or salt. Or you might have a homemade, who has a kefir kit or something at home? I don't know. Maybe you ferment your own food at home. That's another form of processing. But it is a traditional way of looking at foods. I think it's helpful. In fact, in the book, I've got a whole section in the middle on how to stock your cupboards, how to write a shopping list, what to actually do and what to look out for. because if we even take e-numbers, Ella, e-numbers are just additives classified in Europe, which is why we stick a number e in front of it and we just name the additive.

16:12I think that's where it all gets really confusing because e-numbers, for example, are something certainly I feel like I heard about as a child. They felt like something that maybe was to be avoided, was a bit scary, but as you said, actually, it's an additive and then people think what's an emulsifier, et cetera, and we're going to come on to the more of the nitty-gritty. But I think that's a really helpful way, first of all, to think about how am I defining this. So people walking around the supermarket and they're turning over packets and they're looking at what's in things. What are the kind of really common ultra processed foods that we're currently eating, particularly in this country?

16:43Do you know what I find most surprising about this subject is when I got the data and it's global data as well. And then I'll apply it to this country as well. I think we were all very united in the number one common item. So we all have cereals in the house. Yoghurts was probably the most surprising, I think, for people, especially parents of young children. but the number one most commonly consumed UPF is bread. 11 % actually to be precise of our diet. So I think it's really interesting because bread isn't inherently bad for us but there is a hierarchy of bread that that brings into the conversation of privilege.

17:19I mean baked beans are ultra processed foods, plant milks, some of my favourite milks I have in my fridge are ultra processed. And talk us a bit through that hierarchy because I think that's really relevant and in terms of how we're starting to decipher it. Because again, it's part of when 100 % of us are apparently trying to reduce our ultra-processed foods, we certainly are aware of it. And I remember when I first started changing my diets all the way back in 2012, so so long ago now, trying to say, well, I'm trying to move to a whole food diet and not having those sorts of additives and ingredients in.

17:53But it was very hard to define it. Now we have the term ultra-processed food. But talk us through that hierarchy. I think bread's a really great example for what people should be thinking about looking for if they are trying to reduce it. So let's take bread as a really, really good example. So we have to remember, first of all, let's discuss the nuance of why we have these items in the first place. Let's have a think about up 2.8 million people in the UK as a stat don't have a fridge or have a freezer if you go further. And we have to look at an element of privilege. So when we developed and food scientists developed these additives and emulsifiers preservatives, it was to enable food like a loaf of bread to obviously sit in our house for a prolonged period of time because that still is a source of fiber.

18:39Flour is fortified. We've got additional iron and calcium or folic acid now that's added to our food. And we have to remember that particular nuance. So I want you to all bear in mind when we discuss this subject that every food has a place. But what we now know with the hierarchy is that, of course, for most of us, that's on top of a load we're already getting. So if you take a stereotypical healthy day, most people might buy a granola from the shops. That's an ultra processed food. They then pair it with a yogurt, which is ultra processed. And that's a standard healthy meal. And then you move forward to a snack bar they might be buying, which might be marketed as a high protein bar.

19:20But actually, it's a UPF. But then to jump in, that's where it all gets confusing because not all yogurts to this point and this hierarchy. Yeah. And your whole day, your whole day becomes calculative of how much you're having at each meal. You're having a lunch that might be a shop-bought sandwich on the go. And then you get to dinner, which is a quick meal you've whipped at home with a tomato sauce you've brought, which, again, is a UPF. And then on top of that, the bread you're having for breakfast the next morning or every single day or with your sandwiches every day has a lot of additives and emulsifiers in them.

19:52And I don't think we realize the cumulative value of how much we're actually consuming. So the hierarchy of bread is that bread is meant to go off, isn't it, in 24 hours? I mean, look at how stale it goes so quickly. If you're not exposing it to air and oxygen, it will last a bit longer. But there's a reason that we invented these additives. But do we need the quantity of them we're currently consuming? And that's me describing a healthy diet. the variance comes in this entire conversation when we discuss a diet that doesn't look like that in a day, that contains fast food or packets of crisps or all sorts of things as your snack.

20:31And I'm not saying crisps is a bad item. I love a packet of crisps. But I'm saying every single day of the week on top of processed meat for dinner, it just isn't good. But can all of us really buy that bread without those additives and emulsifiers. If 2.8 million people don't have a freezer to store it in, the fresh bread, then what can we do? No, and obviously cost is such a huge factor in that to the point of bread, yogurt, granola, just as those examples. Those are all things that can be processed or ultra processed, but ultimately the processed version is infinitely more expensive. Obviously, we know that through a decade in the food industry, making things where you're using ingredients, not flavorings, to make a product.

21:13and the cost is so much higher. I know. And we see that with bread. Exactly. You've got to go to a bakery. Let alone the plastic that the bread is stored in on the shop shelves as well. If we go into that conversation, I'm convinced in five years' time, we will be addressing the way, hopefully, I mean, supermarkets are starting to do it, but the way we store food and how it's stored as well.

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23:16But what it is saying is I think we're all maybe consuming more of these foods and then we without we are and I think we're probably surprised to find them in an ingredient like bread, particularly sometimes things have very compelling health claims on the on the back on the front. Sorry, in the back tells quite a different story. and obviously one in five adults in the UK are now getting 80 % or so of their calories from ultra-processed food. It's really worrying, but I think it would be really helpful because, again, in a world of kind of fear-mongering and not knowing exactly what to believe, essentially, in terms of how much information is not quite exactly what the research shows initially, how much do we actually know today about the health implications?