Understanding Ultra-Processed Products
Processed foods are products that have been significantly altered from their natural state through industrial methods—think packaged snacks, sugary drinks, frozen meals, and most items with long ingredient lists full of additives you don't recognize. These foods are typically high in refined carbohydrates, seed oils, sugar, and salt while being stripped of fiber and nutrients. They're engineered to be hyper-palatable, making you want to eat more, and they disrupt your body's natural hunger signals. Ultra-processed foods are strongly linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and inflammation. The more your diet consists of real, whole foods that look like they came from a farm rather than a factory, the better your metabolic health will be.
Conventional dietary guidelines promoting low-fat, high-carb eating are founded on flawed, cherry-picked science, leading to soaring rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, while decades of research confirm that saturated fat does not cause heart disease.