From Anxiety to Cancer, the Evidence Against Ultra-Processed Food Piles Up
18th March 2024
Ultra-processed foods are abundant in our food supply. Among the most common are highly refined breads, fast food, sugary drinks, cereals, cookies, and other packaged snacks. They are often high in salt, sugar, fat and calories and low in fiber and micro-nutrients such as vitamins.
And that’s as much of a definition of ‘ultra-processed foods’ as you’re going to get in this article. No indication of what distinguishes ‘ultra-processed’ foods from mere ‘processed’ foods. I guess it’s like ‘ultra-right-wing’; you know it when progressive see it.
At a time when Americans consume more than half of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods, there is increasing evidence that eating too many of these foods can make us sick.
‘Evidence’? No, there isn’t. Here’s what they call ‘evidence’:
A study published in the British Medical Journal finds people who consume high amounts of these foods have an increased risk of anxiety, depression, obesity, metabolic syndrome, certain cancers including colorectal cancer and premature death.
The data come from more than 9 million people who participated in dozens of studies, which researchers analyzed as part of umbrella review.
Such ‘studies’ are merely statistical correlations … and, as any legitimate scientist will remind you, correlation doesn’t imply causation. Suspicious? Certainly–depending on the methodology of the study–which, as we are increasingly seeing, is often shoddy. But evidence? Not in the rigorous legal sense. None of which slows down the hammer of the people who want to ban stuff ‘for your own good’.