Cause of death: Fast food

Updated: Nov 14, 2021

I’m sure you’ve learned that fast food isn’t the healthiest diet for us, but new results from the world’s largest nutrition study suggests the problem could be more than the high amounts of fat, sugar, salt and other additives many fast foods contain. This, and other studies, suggest the way these foods are processed may also be a factor in the unhealthy results and increased risk of chronic diseases that can manifest when we eat too many processed foods.

I've always been a person who likes to search for the cause of a health problem, not just treat the symptoms, and we know that people's risk of various diseases increases when they move to North America. This suggests a problem with our lifestyle or diet, but nutrition and lifestyle research is notoriously difficult to get right. A properly done study needs to control as many factors as possible to be sure the effect they observe is really due to what the study is suggesting, and not from some other background difference. People don’t eat the same food every day and could never be expected to follow a strict diet for 10 years or so, just to prove a point for some researcher!

But the NutriNet-Santé, started in 2009, has found a way to accommodate a large part of these problems… they are using a phone app to collect nutrition data and characteristics of the 171,000 people in the study. It is easier and more accurate to note what you’ve eaten on your phone right away than to remember later when you’re being interviewed by a nutritionist. Participants can even scan the barcode of foods, when available, and supply information about food packaging, cooking practices, how the food was produced, their physical activity, tobacco, drugs, environmental factors, and exposures at home and at work.

As well, with the subjects’ permission, they are able to connect all this information with medical and insurance records, and keep a database of blood, urine and stool tests to monitor and analyze gut microorganisms. Obviously, they must have powerful computer systems to analyze all this data…

Another positive factor in this study, is that it’s completely funded by public institutions. One hazard of many earlier studies is that the researchers received financing from food producers, albeit sometimes provided as an unrestricted grant. But who wants to bite the hand that feeds them? There is always pressure to soften, ignore or even change results that look bad for the funding company…

The NutriNet-Santé study looked specifically at the relationships between nutrition, health, lifestyle factors and mortality; and it examined factors that influence diet patterns, for example, economic and cultural factors.

The results?

We can expect information to be generated from this study for years to come, but an early result is a connection noted between high intake of “ultra processed” foods and increased risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke, mortality, symptoms of depression, obesity and gastrointestinal disorders.

To get an idea of the impact, a 10% increase in ultra-processed foods in the diet was associated with more than 10% increase in risks of overall cancer and breast cancer.

What is “ultra-processed” food?

Food processing is everything you do to food the change it from its original state. There are several levels of food processing:

Unprocessed or minimally processed foods (like nuts, seed whole grains, legumes, fresh or frozen whole/cut up vegetables and fruit, eggs, fresh meat, fish and milk)
Processed ingredients (like flour, oils, butter, starches and sugars)
Processed foods (like canned vegetables, salted nuts, cured meats, cheeses, fresh-baked bread)
Ultra-processed foods (like carbonated/energy drinks, packaged snacks, ice cream, chocolate, candies, mass-produced baked goods, cereal bars, sweetened yoghurt/drinks, chicken/fish nuggets, sausages, burgers, hotdogs, and instant soups/noodles)

One way to see the difference between processed and ultra-processed foods is to look at the ingredient labels. Both types can contain processed ingredients, but ultra-processed foods also contain ingredients you are unlikely to have in your kitchen, like hydrogenated oils, additives (like food colours, flavour enhancers and non-sugar sweeteners, and stabilizing ingredients (like preservatives, anti-caking agents, emulsifiers and humectants) … basically ingredient names you wouldn’t readily recognize.

The NOVA Food Classification System helps people to understand what types of food processing diminish the quality of our food. You will find a summary of the system in the Reference links below.

Why is processing bad for our food?

Much of the problem with highly processed foods has been attributed to the addition of unhealthy ingredients, like high amounts of sugar, salt, colour and fat to “improve” flavour and appearance and preservatives to make the food last longer on store shelves. Processing also often removes important components of food our bodies need, like fibre and vitamins.

But a second factor, not considered until more recently, is what the food is exposed to during processing. Plastic is everywhere and contact with food during processing, as well as what it’s packaged in, can result in transfer of harmful chemicals into the food. Many of these are known to block or mimic hormones (termed “hormone disruptors”), increasing risk of hormone-driven cancers. Plastic and plastic-coated packaging (like coated cardboard and film-lined cans) also provide opportunities for addition of chemicals to food. And you’ll recall my blog from Oct 29th discussing PFAS “forever” chemicals in food packaging and non-stick cookware that are also a source of chemicals added to food. Here’s the link, in case you missed it… PFAS… “Forever chemicals” .

A new study done in the southern US found measurable amounts of harmful chemicals in many foods from several popular restaurant chains. These chemicals have been linked to disruption of hormone systems, fertility problems, and learning and attention problems in children. They are known to be stored in the body and even low exposures can accumulate over years to harmful levels. Some researchers have suggested they may be contributing to the obesity epidemic in North America…

So, how do you know what to buy?

Experts advise us to steer toward whole, non-packaged foods… avoid the center aisles of grocery stores where most packaged processed foods are located. Buy food that is still in its original form as much as possible. Read the food labels on packaged foods and put back the ones with long lists of ingredients that are difficult to pronounce.

But, of course, this takes time, and who wants to spend time reading all that fine print?

So, an alternative is a new labelling system, called Nutri-score or 5-Colour Nutrition Label (5-CNL), designed to make it easier to choose healthier foods with just a quick glance. It’s a nutritional logo based on a 5-colour scale (dark green to red) with letters A to E. A dark green A is best, and a red E is worst.

It was designed in France and, so far, it’s being used in Europe but not yet in North America. However, since it’s being endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), don’t be surprised if we start to see these labels on foods here. The idea is to make it easy to choose healthier food by simply checking a colour/letter, rather than analyzing a more complex food label. Nice to have an expert do the analysis for us too!

But, of course, food manufactures will need to be required to use this labelling. We need to ask our regulators to consider requiring this system to speed up its adoption. Studies have shown that using this labelling makes a significant improvement in the quality of foods shoppers choose.

Another thing it does is encourage manufacturers to create healthier foods. I mean, who wants to have a red “this is unhealthy” label on your product? Of course, these are still edible foods, but the labelling will encourage less consumption… and fewer sales. Money talks!

Scientific studies have demonstrated that consuming more “A’ rated products will lower risk of developing a number of chronic diseases, like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, or metabolic syndrome (a combination of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar due to insulin resistance).

Have you changed the way you shop for food in recent years? If not, do you plan to start looking at ingredients in packaged foods when you’re buying groceries? Let me know in the comments…

Spread the word… contact your Health Minister!

If you know someone who could use a shortcut to better health in the future, forward this blog to them to start them thinking about how they could improve their diet and their health.

I have also drafted a short document you could use to contact the Health Minister in your jurisdiction, to make them aware of this simple program and how it could be used to save tax dollars while improving population health. Feel free to use it or change it, however you like… Here’s a link to it: