#53: Ultra-Processed Foods: How Harmful and Why?

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I unpack what “ultra-processed” really means, why these foods are so easy to overeat, what the best evidence shows (including metabolic-ward studies), and how I personally navigate them without fear or perfectionism. 

Key topics & evidence (in plain English):

• What counts as “ultra-processed”? I walk through the NOVA system—useful, not perfect—and where borderline items (frozen meals, boxed mixes) fit. See an overview of NOVA classifications here
  . 
• How we got here: post-WWII abundance of refined flour, cheap sugars, oils, and a cultural push for convenience—now ~60% of the U.S. diet comes from UPFs (study
  ). 
• Additives: stabilizers, emulsifiers, preservatives, and colors are generally recognized as safe (GRAS). I explain why, on their own, they’re probably not the main health issue. 
• The bigger problem: UPFs are energy-dense, engineered for bliss (fat/sugar/salt + perfect texture), and easy to eat quickly—driving higher calorie intake.
   • Metabolic-ward crossover trial: +~508 kcal/day when participants ate UPFs vs minimally processed (Cell 2019
  ).
  • Overweight adults in a crossover design: +~814 kcal/day on the UPF week (PubMed
  ).
  • Another recent crossover RCT reports ~300 kcal/day higher on UPFs (Nature Medicine 2025
  ). 

What I recommend (and what I do):

• Prioritize whole foods most of the time; shop the perimeter; cook when you can. Canned tomatoes/beans and frozen fruits/peas are fine helpers. 
• If weight, diabetes, or blood pressure are concerns, be extra cautious with UPFs—they’re designed to be irresistible and calorie-dense. 
• Moderation wins: I enjoy favorites (yes, even boxed mac ’n’ cheese and crunchy peanut butter) without letting them dominate my plate. 

Takeaways you can use today:

1. Build meals around minimally processed proteins, veggies, fruits, and beans; let convenience items support—not star—in your diet. 
2. Watch “calorie-dense + easy to overeat” combos (chips, sweets, fast food). If you have them, portion once, then put the package away. 
3. If symptoms or inflammation are puzzling you, try a short UPF-light experiment (2–4 weeks) and see how you feel. 

If this episode helped, please follow and leave a quick review—and share it with a friend who’s curious about UPFs. For my newsletter and resources, visit drbobbylivelongandwell.com.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Obesity, diabetes, and chronic diseases arising.
Is it something in the water orthe air or something in what we
eat?
Many blame ultra processed foodsas the source of the problem.
Is that so?
What does the evidence tell us?
Dr.
Bobby, what should we do?

(00:22):
Listen, and I'll share with youwhat I've learned, what I do,
and what you might consider.
Hi, I'm Dr.
Bobby Du Bois, and welcome toLive Long and Well, a podcast

(00:44):
where we will talk about whatyou can do to live as long as
possible and with as much energyand vigor that you wish.
Together we will explore whatpractical and evidence-supported
steps you can take.
Come join me on this veryimportant journey, and I hope

(01:04):
that you feel empowered alongthe way.
I'm a physician, Iron Mantriathlete, and have published
several hundred scientificstudies.
I'm honored to be your guide.
Welcome, my dear listeners, toepisode 53, Ultra Processed

(01:25):
Foods, how harmful and why.
Well, today there are fast foodopportunities awaiting us on
every corner.
Could be a Big Mac, a Big Gulp,Domino's pizza.
And then when we go into themarket, there are processed
foods on every aisle.

(01:48):
Hamburger helper, fruit loops,frozen pizza, canned soup, and
even protein bars areultra-processed foods.
I love some ultra-processedfoods.
I love donuts, I loveChick-fil-A's, biscuit breakfast
sandwich, I love pretzels, Ilove croissants.

(02:09):
Today, 60% of food in theAmerican diet is
ultra-processed.
And we do have an epidemic ofobesity and diabetes.
Did the ultra-processed foodsget us here?
And if so, how?
Well, like many of our episodes,it's a mixed story, but there'll

(02:32):
be something for everyone onthis topic.
All right, let me begin with acaveat.
Clearly, it's preferable to buyfood at your local farmer's
market or shop the marketperiphery for whole fruits,
whole vegetables, and meat, andcook all those meals at home and

(02:54):
use ingredients that you canpronounce and you understand.
Now, that approach, which isideal, is likely to be costly
and take a lot of time toprepare.
Then, of course, there are theultra-processed foods, the
breakfast cereal, the bacon, thechips, the sodas.
They're often inexpensive andthey're quick to prepare for a

(03:16):
meal.
The question really is howharmful are ultra-processed
foods and why?
And what's the evidence I seethat either frightens me or
reassures me, and evidence thatI don't see.
Now, as always, I'm going toshare my view of this.

(03:38):
I'm looking at studies, I'vebeen thinking about this topic
for years, so this is really asynthesis of what I take from
all the literature and all thediscussions.
Clearly, if you have GI problemsor chronic inflammation, talk to
your doctor.
Because what I say might notfully apply to you.

(04:03):
If you like this podcast, if youlike my podcasts in general,
recommend the podcast to others.
I'm about to put together asurvey to you, my listeners,
about ways that my podcast mighthave changed your life and your
approach to health.
Please send me some notes.

(04:25):
Give me suggestions about what Iought to put into that survey
about what changes in life youmight have done.
If you're going to text methrough your app on uh
podcasting, please include youremail as part of that text so I
know how to get back in touchwith you, because otherwise I

(04:47):
can't.
Why now?
I always try to put this inperspective.
Why would I be talking aboutultra-processed foods now?
Now I've been talking andthinking about this for a lot of
years.
But when I was in medical schooland Gail and I were together and
she was in college, we would go,because we didn't have much

(05:08):
money to the local market, thegiant brand in Baltimore,
Maryland, when I was at Hopkinsand she was med school and she
was at Hopkins undergrad.
And we would buy the marketbrand mac and cheese, not the
Kraft brand, that was moreexpensive.
We would buy the market brandfor 25 cents a box.

(05:29):
And it was cheap, it was yummy,it was quick to make, and we
would eat that a lot.
Now later, when we had a littlemore money, we started making
real macaroni and cheese.
But what we found was we didn'tactually like the real macaroni
and cheese.
We still craved thatultra-process chemical version.

(05:53):
So I definitely understand theappeal of ultra-processed foods.
Second, in addition to being apodcaster, I'm also the host and
tractor writer and kangaroo,alpaca, and antelope guide at
Madrone Springs Ranch, Gail andmy exotic animal ranch and bed

(06:16):
and breakfast location.
Where I'm also the chef.
So I do enjoy cooking and I dowant to prepare healthy foods
for our guests.
I personally don't eat a lot ofultra-processed foods, but I
will eat anything in moderation,and that includes those kinds of

(06:37):
foods.
All right, let's begin ourjourney.
Part one, how did we asAmericans get to having 60% or
70% of our diet due toultra-processed foods?
Well, to answer that question,you and I need to climb in to
our food time machine.

(06:59):
And we're going to go back, say150 years.
Historically, back then in theearly 1800s and for thousands of
years before that, food spoiledif it wasn't eaten right away.
Vegetables were seasonal andthere wasn't meat available all

(07:20):
the time.
So this was a problem.
You had food, you had no food,but no way to keep the food
around as easily as you mightfor times when there was
scarcity.
In the Civil War era, theyinvented tin cans that you could
put food in and keep the foodfor long periods of time.

(07:41):
But that was expensive, and onlythe well-to-do soldiers had
access to the tin canned food.
Now things got better around thetime of World War II, and there
were a lot of foods availablefor our soldiers.
After World War II, there wereconcerns worldwide and in the
U.S.
about not having enough food.

(08:03):
At the time, we spent about 22%of our budget on food.
That's a lot of money that wespent.
But around that time, there wasa revolution in food.
And that was that we learned howto grow crops in new ways that
made the yields much higher.

(08:24):
We created new fertilizers andpesticides.
And there turned out to be nowan explosion in the amount of
grain and corn that wasavailable in the 1950s, 1960s,
1970s.
With all of that grain and corn,it led to a glut of cheap white

(08:45):
flour and the production of highfructose corn syrup.
That's basically a sugarysubstance built from corn.
And since we had so much corn,there's a lot of it around.
And all of that flour and highfructose corn syrup led to many
tasty sodas and drinks andpastries and cookies.

(09:10):
Also during the 1950s, there wasa real focus on convenience.
Could we help the Americanhomemakers make meals more
quickly and easily?
So there were a lot of cannedsoups that became sauces and
frozen dinners.
Some of you may remember in the1960s there was a stancer

(09:33):
professor by the name of PaulEhrlich, and he wrote a book
that was incredibly popularcalled The Population Bomb.
Basically, we were going tooutgrow the planet.
Too many people being born andliving on our planet, not enough
food.
Well, here's the good news.
Malnourishment, which was abouta third of uh people in the 70s

(09:59):
globally, has now fallen toabout 8%.
And food, which was 22% of ourbudget, is now about 10%.
So we solved the scarcity andfood cost problem with better
engineering, higher yields,cheaper calories, and

(10:20):
ultra-convenient foods.
And that was built around what Ijust said.
So we had the flour, we hadinexpensive sugar, we had
plentiful vegetable oil andsalt.
So as I said, today'sultra-processed foods make up
about 60% of the American diet.

(10:41):
And today those foods don'tspoil as quickly.
They look good, they have apleasing texture.
They're often inexpensive andreally convenient.
But they're also dense, lots ofcalories, easy to eat, fast, and
they nudge us to consume more.

(11:02):
Like the commercial for Leigh'spotato chips many years ago, you
can't eat just one.
All right, so that's how we gothere.
So we can get out of our timemachine and now go to part two.
What are ultra processed foods?
Justice Potter Stewart, who wasa justice on the Supreme Court

(11:24):
in 1964, wrote about obscenity.
I will know it, he said, when Isee it.
Well, it's kind of the samething for ultra-processed foods.
We know that Big Mac, Doritos, acrispy cream glaze donut Oreo
cookies are ultra-processedfoods.

(11:46):
But what about lean cuisine orhealthy choice lasagna?
Would that be considered anultra-processed food?
How about if you make thatlasagna or cookies at home with
ingredients from your kitchen?
Clearly that's processed, butwhen does it cross the line into
ultra-processed?

(12:07):
And is crossing that linecritically important?
Okay, this is a relatively newarea of study, and there is no
formally agreed upon definitionof when a food becomes processed
food which becomesultra-processed.
There is the NOVA classificationsystem, and it's been widely

(12:29):
discussed.
It's what people tend to referto, but it isn't a perfect
definition.
I will walk through it with youjust to give you a flavor of how
people think about this idea.
Now, the NOVA system came out inabout 2009, and there were four
different groups from one tofour, four being the

(12:50):
ultra-processed.
Initially, that system was builtaround processing, thus the
definition or the nameultra-processed.
It wasn't as focused on theingredients, it was focused on
how did you create that food andwas their sort of engineering
and mechanical processing in theprocess.

(13:12):
Now, things have modified a bit,but that was where it
originated.
So group one is basically food,just raw food, fruits, and
vegetables.
So you might have an apple, youmight have an egg, clearly
there's been no processing.
That is group one.
Group two is some processing.

(13:34):
So obviously you have olives,but to create olive oil, you've
got to squeeze them.
You know, butter is churnedcream, but you got to turn it
from cream to butter.
So that's group two.
You might call it just a bit ofprocessing.
Group three combines some of theoriginal group one with group

(13:55):
two.
So you might have cannedvegetables, so canned beans or
fruits in a tin with some syrup,or, you know, um uh tuna in a
can or fresh made bread.
So these group threes process alittle bit and then add to it

(14:15):
salt and sugar often and oil.
And now we get to the mostworrisome one for most people,
which is the group four, whichis the ultra-processed.
Like a potter steward, we knowthings like Pepsi or Chipsahoy
cookies or stofers or MarieCalendars, meatloaf, or other
frozen dinners might fit intothat category.

(14:40):
And what's happened in the groupfour NOVA classification is
you've taken kind of pieces offood, raw food, and you
processed it.
And then you put it all backtogether.
And when you put it all backtogether, it's engineered to
meet the goals of cheap, stable,and desirable.
And they often have the uniqueand craving combination of fat,

(15:05):
carbs, or sugar, and salt.
And if you look on the labels ofthese things, you may find
ingredients that don't sit inyour kitchen, you don't
understand where they came from.
So that's the classification.
Again, it's not perfect, butit's a way to begin to think
about the topic.

The all-important part three: why ultra-processed foods might (15:24):
undefined
be harmful.
And there are three differentaspects that I will walk us
through.
The first is if you look at theingredients, the ingredients
themselves may be harmful.

(15:46):
Now, there's lots of fear aroundthis.
There's not a lot of compellingdata, but there are four
ingredient types that peoplefocus upon.
The first are what are calledstabilizers.
So when you have ice cream, youwant it to hold together.
You don't want it to be icy.
Your yogurt, you would like itto be velvety and soft and a

(16:09):
uniform consistency.
Stabilizers are added to thosefoods to make that happen.
And there are things likeguargum or keratinin.
Now, people are like, oh mygosh, these things that are
added to the food, they must bebad for us.
Well, a lot of the stuff is fromvegetables or fruits.

(16:32):
So keritinin is from seaweed.
Obviously, it was extracted fromthe seaweed.
Now, there are some stabilizersthat are kind of manufactured,
man-made.
But a lot of the stuff is stuffthat originated in fruits and
vegetables.

(16:52):
The second of these additivesare what are called emulsifiers.
Basically, you want to keep oiland water together.
You would like a salad dressingthat doesn't separate.
You'd like peanut butter whereit's all uniform and there's not
the oil on the top and the otherstuff on the bottom, which is

(17:12):
difficult to stir up.
So emulsifiers are things likelecifen, which may sound like a
big deal, but it comes fromsoybeans.
They're also mono anddiglycerized.
Now, those are manufactured, butthey come from hydrogenated
fats.
So again, some of this isnatural, some of this is not.

(17:33):
There are concerns that maybethe emulsifiers, because they're
kind of bringing the oil and thewater together, might have an
impact on our microbiome.
Again, the data's not all thatclear.
And the third thing that is anadditive are preservatives
because we want a long shelflife.

(17:54):
We don't want our food to getrancid or spoiled.
And so you'll see things likesodium benzoate or ascorbic
acid.
Well, a lot of the stuff comesfrom berries or it comes from
citrus fruits.
So again, just because it's anadditive doesn't mean it's
necessarily dangerous.
And I talked in my bacon episodeabout nitrates, but nitrates are

(18:19):
also in celery and kale.
But there are things that aremanufactured like BHA.
And the last piece of the puzzleare various colors that are
added, various flavorings thatare added.
The real question is, are theseadditives dangerous in and of

(18:40):
themselves?
Well, they are basicallyreferred to as something called
grass, G R A S, generallyrecognized as safe.
Now there aren't largerandomized control trials that
really tell us these areabsolutely safe, but they're
generally recognized as safe.

(19:02):
But clearly the quantities ofthem might matter.
Now, again, there are nothresholds scientifically
derived about when you have toomany of these additives in your
diet or not.
For me, the additive issue isprobably not the biggest concern

(19:22):
about ultra-processed foods.
They're there, and as I saidearlier, yeah, go to the
farmer's market, make all yourstuff together yourself at home.
But in and of themselves,they're probably not that
dangerous.
The second issue to bepotentially concerned is not
what we add to theultra-processed foods, it's

(19:45):
what's removed from theultra-processed foods.
So when you make enriched whiteflour, you're taking away the
fiber from the wheat.
And that slows down, fiber wouldnormally slow down absorption.
So if you remove some of thefiber, then maybe that flour and

(20:05):
sugary substances will go intoyour body quickly.
That could be problematic.
Also, in the processing, there'sa lot of heat involved, and that
destroys vitamins.
But do keep in mind when youcook at home, you're also
applying heat, so it can happenthere as well.
Now, for some ultra-processedfoods, we do add back some of

(20:28):
the removed ingredients.
So we fortify wheat, uh, wefortify milk with vitamin D.
So some of this is added back,but clearly not all the fiber
and all the other wonderfulnutrients.
If you had a small amount ofultra-processed food in your
diet, and yes, maybe it wasnutrient poor, eh, might not

(20:52):
matter so much.
But when 60 or 70% of your dietis ultra-processed food, and
each of those items may beremoving nutrients that could be
important to you, that could bea problem.
So it depends upon how much ofthe ultra-processed foods that
you eat.
And this probably gives you aninkling of where I'm going to

(21:14):
net out on all of this.
Now we get to the third aspectof potential concern.
And this is the one that Ibelieve makes us all should be
worried about ultra-processedfoods.
And that is ultra-processedfoods are calorie dense.
Every bite has a lot ofcalories, more so than eating an

(21:36):
apple or eating a cucumber.
And they are engineered to beyummy.
Of course, they want to sellmore of their food.
So it is the perfect blend ofcarbs or sugar, fat, and salt.
That's why we love pizza.
That's why we enjoy eating chipsand we want to eat more and more

(21:58):
of them.
And their texture is perfect.
As I said earlier, there wasthat commercial for Lay's potato
chips, you can't just eat one.
So theoretically, this food willmake us want to eat more and
more.
But the important issue is thereare actual scientific studies

(22:19):
that have been reproduced andfor me, anyways, make it very
believable.
So one of the classic originalstudies was by a scientist by
the name of Hall.
And he had some people thatlived in a metabolic ward.
So they lived in a place in thehospital, they could measure
exactly how many calories theyate, and it was a study to look

(22:45):
at how many calories did peoplechoose to eat when they had
regular food or when they had adiet that was full of
ultra-processed foods.
So in this study, when peoplewere on the ultra-processed food
part of the study, they ate over500 calories more per day.

(23:07):
Probably because, again, theywere energy dense and they were
engineered, so you just wantedmore and more and more of them.
And you ate faster because thereprobably wasn't as much chewing
involved.
So that was a study that lookedat people of normal weight.
But there's been studies ofpeople that are overweight.
Again, if you give them normalfood for a week, then you give

(23:30):
them ultra-processed food for aweek.
In this study, the overweightfolks ate 800 calories more when
they had the ultra-processedfood diet.
And then Dickens in 2025 had astudy where again they crossed
over between a normal diet andultra-processed or an

(23:50):
ultra-processed to normal diet,and they had about a 300 calorie
more per day during theultraprocess phase.
So multiple studies suggestingthat an ultra-processed food
diet, you eat more, three toeight hundred calories.
That means in a couple of weeks,you might have an extra pound of

(24:13):
body weight.
And you do the math over thecourse of a year, it could be 10
or 20 pounds more.
Because again, these foods, youlove to eat them, and it's hard
not to eat more.
Not that you can't stop eatingthem, but that you naturally
tend to eat more.
This is of the three aspects ofultra-processed foods.

(24:35):
This is what I worry about most,because the weight leads to
potentially diabetes, heartdisease, cancer, cognitive
decline.
Okay, part three.
What do I think?
And perhaps for some of youwondering, what do I actually
do?
Well, whole foods really arebest.

(24:59):
Remember our time machine.
We wanted to have foods thatcould last longer, they were
inexpensive, and they wereconvenient.
Now it's true, some of theingredients aren't ideal,
although I'm not personally thatworried about the additive so
much.
The removal of nutrients, as Italked about, that could be a

(25:20):
problem if you're not eatingmuch normal food.
If all you're eating isultra-processed food, you are
probably missing out onimportant ingredients and
nutrients.
Would a multivitamin help?
It might, but you still would bemissing other things.
As I said, what worries me themost is ultra-processed foods

(25:42):
can easily lead to weight gain,which puts you at risk for all
those diseases of chronicillnesses that are happening
over and over and more and morein the United States.
So if you have a weight problem,do think carefully.
These foods are calorie-dense,they're inexpensive, and they

(26:04):
are engineered to be desirableor irresistible.
Look, if you want to have a bowlof fruit loops, a small bowl of
fruit loops, but the rest ofyour breakfast, the rest of your
day is really healthy foods, Idon't think that's a problem.
But when it's 60 or 70% of yourdiet, it might be.

(26:26):
If you're a normal weight, thenthat issue of ultra-processed
foods making you eat more andmore may not be a problem.
Sure, the calorie, I mean, thethe fact that the mighty removal
of vitamins, that's important.
But again, for me, the big issueis the weight gain.

(26:49):
So what do I do?
I eat anything in moderation.
I drink alcohol in moderation.
I have my bacon uh mostly inmoderation.
So for me, I don't getfrightened by most of these food
concerns.
But when I go to the market, Ido shop around the periphery by
and large.

(27:10):
I get my whole fruits andveggies, and I go to the meat
counter and get my meats.
But I love to cook, and I do buycanned tomatoes or canned black
beans.
And some of these clearly havesalt added to them.
They may have calcium chlorideadded to them, which is again

(27:31):
part of the uh preservatives.
I might buy coconut milk to putin an Asian recipe, which has
guargung.
And as I said, there may be uhpreservatives.
But I buy these.
They are basically healthyingredients, and maybe there's a
little bit of other stuff addedto them.
I don't eat frozen pizza, Idon't eat frozen lasagna.

(27:52):
The only frozen foods I reallyeat are I'll buy uh frozen fruit
for smoothies, and I'll buyfrozen peas uh for cooking for
dinner.
I don't eat hamburger helper, Idon't eat uh packaged, easy to
prepare items.
Look, as I said earlier, Gailand I love artificial flavored

(28:13):
mac and cheese, even thoughthere is actual cheese
supposedly in them.
And I love GIF peanut butter.
I love the taste, the texture,and yes, it has hydrogenated
oils, it has sugar, and it hassome salt.
But like those episodes on baconand alcohol, I enjoy things in

(28:36):
moderation.
My weight is fine, but if itwere not, I would be more
careful about some of thoseitems in my diet.
If I had diabetes oruncontrolled high blood
pressure, I'd also be carefulabout the salt and the sugar.
And if I had unexplainedillnesses or inflammation, I

(28:58):
might try a diet withoutultra-processed foods using the
N of 1 approach.
So are ultra-processed foodstruly the evil that we hear
about?
I think it's a mixed story likeso many others.
Let me know what you think.
Have I confused you or has thisbeen helpful to you?
And again, tell others about thepodcast.

(29:19):
I hope you live long and welland that you eat healthy, but
also give yourself a chance totruly enjoy foods that you love.
A few ultra-processed foodindulgences shouldn't be too big
of a problem.
Thanks so much for listening toLive Long and Well with Dr.

(29:42):
Bobby.
If you like this episode, pleaseprovide a review on Apple or
Spotify or wherever you listen.
If you want to continue thisjourney or want to receive my
newsletter on practical andscientific ways to improve your
health and longevity.
please visit me at drbobbi livelongandwell.com.

(30:05):
That's doctor as in Dr BobbyLivelongandwell.com