Aging during the processed food era

medicine; bad food is deadly. The 30 seconds you donate to reading the label will tell you which road your food is taking you down. “Added sugars” are noted under the “Carbohydrates” section of the label. Where it is labeled as just “sugars,” you may need to examine the product’s ingredients list to tell if there are “added sugars.” Look for the names of sugar in the list, i.e., maltose, dextrose, sugar, honey, organic honey, etc. Note that sugars often hide in packages marked “heart healthy.” There is little regulation that identifies what this term means. Reading the label and not just the box cover is critical.

Weight increase was most strongly associated with consuming potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages, and processed and unprocessed red meats, according to a study.

People living in the United States live to their mid-70s on average. What takes lives is predominantly chronic diseases, such heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes. These chronic diseases share a metabolic component whereby energy production in a cell is not functioning well, resulting in the output and use of energy being disrupted. The direct causes of our accelerating number of deadly chronic diseases are mostly unknown, but all indications are that food impacts their progression or regression. As the saying goes, “good food is good medicine.” The biggest question then becomes, what foods are “good?”

What We Evolved to Eat

Going back millions of years, humans were hunters and gatherers. What humans ate was a function of climate which yielded availability. Meat, tubulars, fruits, greens, bugs, and more were all in various diets. The adaptations existed within our biology and physiology to use these foods as nutrients to fuel our metabolism. Our forefathers, right up until the 1940s, ate predominantly foods in an unmodified form as the earth gave them. Food had little processing or refining happening before consumption.

In 2019, processed foods accounted for 58% of the average American’s diet, causing cellular energy production problems. For example, in one study of over 120,000 people followed up over 20 years, weight increase was most strongly associated with consuming potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages, and processed and unprocessed red meats. The study concluded that processed foods higher in starches, refined grains, fats, and sugars could increase weight gain. Weight gain is a risk factor for multiple chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, dementia, and cancer (there are now at least a dozen different cancers identified that are caused by excess body weight).

Regarding processed foods, weight gain is one byproduct of added sugar. These sugars contribute about 21% of the calories from all those ultra-processed boxes in the closet. Take, for example, an average breakfast of two packets of maple instant oatmeal, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of coffee with a teaspoon of sugar. This contains roughly 45 grams of added sugar, or 11 teaspoons, in one meal. Compared to recommendations, a healthy individual can process added sugar amounts of nine teaspoons for men, six teaspoons for women, and four for children in a 24-hour period (WHO guidelines on added sugars). Add to that an afternoon Grande Soy Chai Latte, which has 43 grams of added sugar, and one has consumed over four days’ worth of sugar in seven hours.

Reduction of added sugars means less consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods. Here are a few tips that can start the process rolling.

1. Educate Yourself: Take 30 seconds to read the nutrition label. Good food is good

2. Calculate Your Added Sugars: Sugars are marked on a product label in grams. To convert grams to teaspoons, take the number of sugars in grams and divide by four. This will tell you how many teaspoons of added sugars are in the product and can be aligned with the WHO recommendations. Where you are outside of these parameters or already subject to metabolic issues like diabetes, your body’s ability to process sugars may be drastically reduced. Consequently, reducing added sugars further may be necessary to reduce the risks and symptoms of the disease. Where there is no nutritional label on food (and it is not coming from a bakery, restaurant, deli, or premade Hot Bar), it is most likely a “whole food” and, therefore, would not contain “added sugars.” For example, an apple has sugar, but it is matched with fiber that can mitigate its effect on the body. Therefore, whole foods are a wiser choice. They are smartly designed by nature. Substitute sugars exist on the market, and some research identifies they are safer for the human system, while others show to be quite dangerous. If you are looking for interesting new and ancient sweetness alternatives, alcohol sugars (i.e., erythritol), allulose, and stevia may warrant research and a discussion with your doctor. Keep in mind that all have benefits and drawbacks. Their effect on the human system long term needs to be better researched.

Nothing in this article constitutes medical advice. All medical advice should be sought from a medical professional.