In the past few months, several prominent stories involving ultra-processed foods have been in the news. Most recently, and most notably, this headline was seen on Time.com, originally published August 27th, 2024: “What if Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?”
Predictably, the internet blew up in indignation at this article. The comments were nearly unanimous that this was a piece of corporate propaganda put out by the food industry itself. While that is the simple explanation, a more thorough investigation exposes many more problems with our food system (and healthcare system in total), why high quality research is so hard to find, and why various regulatory agencies do more to maintain this confusion than to offer any sort of solution.
It should be no surprise that the main theme behind this story is money. Every human, pet, and livestock animal needs to eat on a regular basis. Businesses of any type love selling products that get consumed and need to be replaced quickly (This is also the driving force behind the “planned obsolescence” of most major products like cars, refrigerators, and other major appliances. They don’t make ’em like they use to!) Human food consumption in the United States alone accounts for over $2.6 trillion in sales. There is a lot of money at stake, and the market is incredibly competitive.
Like any group or industry, there is a spectrum of food companies. Some have high standards, nearly altruistic, and want to produce the best quality foods, while others will do anything it takes to simply make the most money, even if it means lying and cheating. As you will soon see, they can reduce the risk of lying and cheating as long as those same companies control several other highly influential pieces of the chess board.
Before we dive in, it is worth noting how this article ran in direct contrast to another article put out by Time just a few months earlier in January of 2023, titled, “Why Ultra-Processed Foods Are So Bad For You.” Instead of attempting to explain away their hypocrisy, Time re-published their recent story one day later with a new title, “Why One Dietician is Speaking Up for ‘Ultra-Processed’ Foods.”
So, why is there so much confusion, and what can be done about it? This article would be way too long if we tried to explain everything in detail (many books and articles have already been written on these various topics), so we will endeavor to keep this very general in order to not overwhelm the reader.
It is nothing new for the food industry to try and sow confusion about the health value of their products. Mark Twain captured a scene in his book, Life on the Mississippi, overhearing a conversation where cottonseed oil is being promoted to be better than real butter, noting how they can make it nearly indistinguishable while also being cheaper, more profitable, and how there won’t be any hotel or business in the river valley that still serves butter after they are through. Cottonseed oil was one of the very first mass-market ultra-processed foods, still available today despite mountains of negative evidence. Shockingly, this book containing that story about cottonseed oil corruption was published way back in 1883, roughly 20 years after this product first entered the market.
In another clear example, it has been well-documented that the sugar industry paid scientists to put out junk research meant to deflect criticism that sugar was causing cavities and obesity (among many other issues) and instead blamed dietary fats, an argument that sadly persists to this day. Over the past 150 years, the amount of ultra-processed foods has exploded so much that 73% of all food available at most conventional grocery stores fits into this category.
As you will see next, there are many layers to this problem. Research is expensive and time consuming, and the results might not always be favorable especially if the product is inferior from the start. The solution is to “sponsor” research, but this only leads to severe conflicts of interest where the researchers are pressured to produce positive results that can bring a product to market faster or help it overtake a competitor. This is junk science, and just like the junk food it promotes, there’s a ton of it! The peer-review process doesn’t catch this bad science because enough of the “peers” are also on the receiving end of this industry money or they don’t want to rock the boat, and the papers are written with enough baked-in confusion to prevent other researchers from duplicating or disproving their claims.
Then, when there is enough “evidence” supporting these claims that ultra-processed foods are beneficial (or at least not harmful), schools, medical review boards, state licensing boards, and insurance companies fall in line and start promoting these falsehoods. These institutions are mainly responsible for spreading misinformation that eventually makes its way to the consumer. They are the ones being directed by their corporate sponsors through lucrative stock deals, insider information, or promises of better positions following the implementation of certain rules and legislation. It is an open secret that our regulatory agencies like the CDC, FDA, USDA, among others, have become a revolving door where high-level regulators are rewarded with cushy jobs in the food industries, and vice versa. The practicing medical doctors and teachers that end up promoting this nonsense may have good ethics and wouldn’t knowingly lie to their patients or students, but they are too busy to do their own research and simply rationalize it as the changing nature of science.
With enough money, they can influence the right people and groups who then promote these lies with reckless abandon. The science and the consensus are both completely manufactured out of thin air, unbound by truth and only supported by the ill-gotten profits from their destructive products. When this amount of power is behind a lie, it gains legitimacy. It bleeds into the public consciousness. It becomes normal.
The obvious problem is that lies related to health have a way of being found out. We need only look around at our current health results as a nation to see that we are going in the wrong direction. Chronic disease has become an epidemic, and issues like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer have become all too common even among children.
It should go without saying that these issues demonstrate a massive lack of health in our population, but corporate science once again jumps in to muddy the waters by pointing out that there are several other confounding variables that can contribute to these same issues. They will say that it could also be hormone dysregulation, a genetic predisposition, other foods or ingredients in our diet, a toxic overload from something else, some other type of internal dysfunction, a placebo effect, or any number of excuses for why it can’t be just one thing.
And on some level, we agree with them. We are being poisoned and our health is being corrupted from every angle. We need to put everything on the table and look at it realistically. That’s why we put together a course that is focused on creating a healthy lifestyle called Empowered Health Foundations.
When you become aware of the choices you are making on a regular basis, and compare them with the various options you had at the beginning and the results you have at the end, you’ll quickly see that many of the decisions we make are unconsciously guided by this sort of intense propaganda.
If you are tired of the deception and want to know how doctors like us get great results without the use of drugs or surgery, check it out. If you want to understand more about the advice we have given patients for over 14 years that have resulted in amazing healing experiences, sign up today. Our next course will launch soon. Join us for our free Master Class where we will answer all of your questions about this course, along with giving you several action steps for immediate improvements.
As a family-owned business in the alternative healthcare space, we are completely reliant on the word of mouth referrals of others who are excited about their care. We receive no sponsorships or kick-backs from any drug company or food company. We only succeed if you succeed. What do you have to lose besides your confusion?
