Should I avoid ultra-processed food?

Here’s why food with an ingredients list as long as your arm is now under the microscope

It seems every few years or so, new trends emerge, and a new category of food becomes either adored or demonised. Plant-based eating promised to make both us and our planet healthier, and more recently, there’s been a big focus on feeding your gut bacteria well. From sauerkraut to sourdough and kefir to kombucha, the virtues of probiotic eating have been sung from the rooftops.

But now there’s a new kid on the block – ultra-processed food (UPF). It lurks in the cupboards of most of our kitchens and is sometimes even cleverly disguised behind labels such as ‘healthy’ and ‘one of your five a day’.

Ultra-processed foods are packaged foods that are so altered by the manufacturing process they barely resemble the original ingredients that went into them, and they are bad for our bodies on many levels. “Ultra processed food can change your gut microbiome makeup, creating more of the bad bacteria and less of the good ones,” says epigenetics practitioner and longevity expert Tony Pemberton (epicgenetics.co.uk). “This increases chronic inflammation in the body, which can exasperate autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis.”

UPF and MS

A study published in January 2023 found that higher UPF consumption was associated with moderate-to-high MS severity compared to lower consumption. Researchers hypothesised that these types of foods probably increased oxidative stress and therefore inflammation. They also noted that UPFs are generally rich in saturated fats, free sugars, and sodium, while low in fibre, protein, potassium, and antioxidants are low. We know that consuming lots of low-nutrient, high-calorie foods can lead to obesity, something which is consistently shown to have a negative affect on MS symptoms and disease progression. “Also, studies have shown people on a high a UPF diet tend to consume 500-600 calories more each day,” says Tony. “Some of this is due to UPFs affecting your satiety hormones.

“UPFs tend to be high in sugar and salt, and so 2019 a study showed that participants who lowered their glucose and sodium levels had a 70-fold increase in white blood mitochondria. Mitochondria are powerhouses of your cells, and mitochondrial disfunction is strongly linked to MS.”

How to spot them

Many foods go through a ‘process’ and are therefore processed – that doesn’t make them all bad. What flags foods up as ultra-processed is a suspect ingredients list. “Look out for ingredients you don’t find in your kitchen cupboards,” says Tony. “Things like emulsifiers, preservatives and artificial flavourings and sweeteners.”

Other ingredients to watch out for include protein sources (hydrolysed proteins, soya protein isolate, gluten, casein, whey protein, mechanically separated meat), sugars (fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrates, invert sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose, lactose), soluble or insoluble fibre, and modified oils (hydrogenated or interesterified oil). Cosmetic additives, used to make the final product more palatable or more appealing, include flavours, flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners, and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents.

The further near the beginning of the list of ingredients these things are, the greater amount the product contains, as ingredients are listed in weight order.

The healthy vegan?

Eating a vegan diet has no bearing on whether you are consuming ultra-processed foods or not. If your vegan diet is based around vegetables, fruits, grains, pulses and nuts, then you aren’t having a lot of UPF. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the vegan who consume ‘fake’ meat products with every meal, so vegan burgers, sausages and cheeses – most of these are ultra-processed. Even plant ‘milks’ can be classed as UPF if they list emulsifiers, stabilisers or flavourings in their ingredient lists.

It’s best to base your diet on wholefoods cooked from scratch as much as you are able. Of course, this might not be possible 100 per cent of the time but, if in doubt, always check the label.