The previous post, “The D-Word Makes an Appearance,” introduced Kevin Hall, one of the professionals questioned by Dhruv Khullar in pursuit of the meaning and significance of hyper-processing as it relates to food. Hall, an expert from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was principal investigator for the study about which Dr. Khullar wrote The NewYorker piece, “Why Is the American Diet So Deadly?” The word “deadly” in that title is, of course, what brought some unfavorable attention from the industry to its author. More aspects of that piece of journalism are discussed below.
At a conference in 2015, Hall ran into some Brazilian nutritionists who were very accusatory about the excessive processing of food. However, he found the “processing = bad” theory so unlikely that it would need to be vigorously investigated and thoroughly discredited. Just then, the NIH added a new facility, a “metabolic ward” designed to focus on the study of diet and exercise, with Hall as the administrator.
Twenty participants were recruited to spend a month as guinea pigs, eating exactly what was on offer, all the while under close observation that aimed to track every calorie that went in and every calorie that came out. They spent two weeks ingesting minimally processed foods, then two weeks with maximally processed fare.
That took a turn
Eventually, a surprised Kevin Hall “ended up refuting his own hypothesis.” Against all odds, these experiments made a believer of him because, as it turned out…
When participants were on the ultra-processed diet, they ate five hundred calories more per day and put on an average of two pounds. They ate meals faster; their bodies secreted more insulin; their blood contained more glucose.
Conversely, unexpectedly, and with a different sort of food, a different sort of consequence occurred:
When participants were on the minimally processed diet, they lost about two pounds. Researchers observed a rise in levels of an appetite-suppressing hormone and a decline in one that makes us feel hungry.
So, no need for a doctor’s prescription or a pharmacy. Expressed in a rather flippant, pop-culture manner, just by eating “these” foods instead of “those” foods, people can internally manufacture their own diet pills. The fact was revealed: If weight loss is the goal, ultra-processed foods are bad, and minimally processed foods are good. It was just that, as yet, no one knew why. (The illustration on this page is of one sort, cravenly trying to pass as the other sort.)
Worse and worse
Meanwhile, the “obesity epidemic” was estimated to contribute to almost three million deaths every year, and the simple ability to enumerate calories could still not account for it. Another nutritionist, Dariush Mozaffarian, said of the new discovery, “It’s the biggest change to human biology in modern history. But we still don’t have a good handle on why.”
Dr. Khullar then consulted with microbiome researcher Katherine Maki, who is absorbed by such questions as why a basically helpful bacterium that has always been a good tenant of the microbiome suddenly decides to eat the linings of our intestines. Also, why are our innards so particularly vulnerable to, and easily damaged by, artificial sugar substitutes?
One of the big arguments against highly processed edibles is that the taste receptors become desensitized and worn out, so we are trapped in futility, “chasing the dragon,” trying to grab the intense sensations we crave, but can’t recapture. Practical experience should teach us that doing the thing less often would probably make it seem more delicious and memorable each time, but it doesn’t work that way. We are pretty good at remembering basic concepts that we like, and forgetting other ones.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Why Is the American Diet So Deadly?”, Archive.is, 01/06/25
Image by MabelAmber/Pixabay
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