If you’d like to give the idea of dieting or losing weight every time the new year rolls around, this episode is for you. 

With the fast pace of life, and the challenge of managing your energy, we seem to forget how to eat more with each passing year. 

The food industry is full of great marketers, hooks, bright colors, and intense flavors that draw us in with promises of convenience and time savings. 

But what are the ultra-processed foods that make up more than 70% of the food supply in the U.S. and increasingly taking more of the market share on the grocery shelves in other countries really doing to our bodies? 

In this episode, I’ll fill you in on how they affect your body, your brain, and your weight. 

If knowledge is power, and I believe it is, this show will give you the power to change the way you nourish and support your body.  

Listen now. 

Your future self will thank you. 

Referred to in this episode: 
67 Weight-Loss Statistics You Should Know 

U.S. Weight Loss Market 2023–2032 

Association between ultra-processed food consumption and risk of breast cancer: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies 

Association between ultra-processed foods and risk of cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis 

Ultra-processed foods: how functional is the NOVA system? 

Everything in moderation? Focusing on ultra-processed foods 

Database Indicates U.S. Food Supply Is 73 Percent Ultra-Processed 

The share of ultra-processed foods and the overall nutritional quality of diets in the US: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study 

Read the full transcript below:

Laura Lummer 0:00
You're listening to better than before breast cancer with the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm your host, Laura Lummer. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills and the insights and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis. If you're looking for a way to create a life, that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started. Hello, hello, welcome to episode 308. I'm your host, Laura Lummer. And happy new year, this show is coming out on January 2, starting off the new year fresh. And because it's our Tuesday terrain talk, I can't avoid talking about the topic that is on so many people's minds when it comes to the New Year. And not just because this is a popular topic. But because it can be really complicated. A lot of people can tie it to their self worth. It rarely sticks for very long. And by the end of the first quarter, we let go of it. But I today I'm going to talk about the focus we have on weight loss, and on changing our diet to what we perceive as a healthy diet. Now, many perceptions of that can be different. But whatever you tell yourself when you say I'm going to eat healthier this year, and I'm going to give you a very simple thing to do. Because here's the deal, you can go out and spend a lot of money on diets, you can go out and spend a lot of money on trainers. And I think having a trainer is a great idea. And it's worth the investment because people can teach you how to exercise properly without injuring yourself and without being so sore that you can't sit on the toilet the next day. So that I think is important. But I also believe there's some very simple rules when it comes to eating. And if we can start with the basics, then we don't have to spend a whole lot of money on extremes. When I looked up some of the statistics around the number of people who focus on health goals, the percentage of people who focus on health goals at the beginning of the year, I found some statistics that said 44% of people in North America focus on health goals for the beginning of the year, that's quite a lot. And actually it ranged anywhere from 16% of the people up to 44%. So North America having the highest percentage of people 33% in East Asia and the Pacific 31 and a half percent of the people in Europe. So a lot of people are focusing on getting healthy. And there's some really simple ways to do that, that don't involve spending a ton of money and in fact, can save you money. So I looked up what amount of money, the diet industry actually brings in the weight loss market. And I found in 2022. So I didn't have this as the statistic for 2023. But in 2022, United States spent $135 billion on weight loss, what the heck. And the expected value to be spent in the US in 2023 was $159 billion. By 23. The expectation is $305 billion.

Laura Lummer 3:49
You guys, the reason why I'm saying that is because if diets worked, we wouldn't be spending more and more money on them every year, because they would work. So people wouldn't keep trying a new routine and not the beginning of every year spending a bunch of money on a new routine. We have to change the way we think about food. And I believe that knowledge is power, the more you know about food, and what it actually does, the easier it is for you to make a better, more informed decision without having to be so extreme. I remember having a conversation this is few years ago with a woman that I worked with. And she had started a weight loss challenge at the beginning of the year. And this challenge was so restrictive. There was no way in the world. I knew she would not be able to stick with it. No one could have stuck with it. It was crazy. So it's a challenge and yeah, you can stick with a challenge for I think maybe hers was a month and it was whoever could lose the most weight in a month I think didn't have to pay for the challenge right and everybody else did. But it came down to the kind of kale and the time of eating kale, and just these bizarre requirements and rules, that could never work with someone's life, right, we have to be able to eat in a way that works with our lifestyle, and that we enjoy. And if we can do that in a way that supports the health of the terrain of our body, then we're moving forward. And when we start doing that, when we start thinking about what nourishes this body, instead of just thinking about calories in calories out, but we actually think about how our body feels, and what's good for it, and what food is doing to it. You know, some people say, Food is fuel, some people say food is medicine. And I think it can be both of those. But it's also traditions. It's also an emotional crutch. It can be an expression of love, like we have so many thoughts and ideas around food. But if we come back to the basics, and we say, what do we want food to do for our body? And then sometimes we go outside of that and just say, What do I want from food tonight? Just eat something that tastes delicious. But if most of the time we are focused on what do I want this food to do for my body? How do I want this food to support me? And how do I enjoy it? That I think that we can organically move towards a lifestyle and a nutrition plan that can have a beneficial side a side effect of weight loss if weight loss is something that you want. So let's talk about one decision, you can make an easy decision you can make that can change the course of the way you feed your body. And that is make a decision to keep Ultra processed foods out of your house and out of your diet. And please don't shut off the podcast. It's not stopping there. I don't want to just say don't eat processed food, who doesn't know that we've all heard that. I want to help you understand exactly what I mean. When I say Ultra processed foods, I want you to understand what Ultra processed foods do for your body. Because I think that when you understand what these foods and I use that term very loosely, because I hesitate to even refer to them as foods. I want you to understand what these ultra processed foods, I'll call them ups from now on what these ups do to your body, to your mood, to your health, to your disease risk, and to your brain health as well. Okay, so first of all, let's talk about what an ultra processed food or a U P F is. So there's a classification system called Nova. And Nova is not an acronym. It's just called Nova. It's the system that categorizes food based on the extent and the purpose of their processing. So this system is widely used in public health and nutrition to help understand the impact of food processing on health and nutrition. So there's four classifications in the Nova classification system, when I'm going to tell you what those are. The first one is called Novo one. And that classification of food is unprocessed or minimally processed food. What that means is food in their whole and natural state, or with very minimal processing. And that means the processing that doesn't substantially changed the nutritional properties of that food. So minimal processing could be like drying, grinding, crushing, refrigeration, fermentation, right those kinds of things when you take anything and you add something to it is considered process. But minimal processing basically is using cooking techniques to prepare your food right so we can call some of that minimal processing. So examples of foods that are in the Nova one category of fresh fruits and vegetables, dried fruits that have no added sugars, no honey, anything like that. They are oils, grains, legumes, poultry, fish, eggs, meat, milk that doesn't have anything added their nuts and seeds, tea, coffee, water, spices, herbs, Whole Foods. Okay, so then there's Nova to the second category. And this is a category that's processed with culinary ingredients, which means that these substances are extracted from foods or nature and they're used to season and cook. So this includes things like oils, fats, sugar, and salt. So these ingredients basically are not intended to be eaten alone, but to be used in the preparation or The minimum processing of food. So these would be foods like salted butter, sugar from the sugar cane molasses that came from the sugar cane or sugar beet, honey that's extracted from a honeycomb syrup that's extracted from a maple tree vegetable oils that come from the crushing of olives, butter and lard that come from milk or pork, right, so they're extracted from that food, vegetable oils with added antioxidants and vinegars with added preservatives also fall into that category. So then number three is called processed foods. And these are foods that are made by adding sugar, salt, other culinary ingredients, but they have two or three ingredients. So this would be like canned fish fruits that are canned in syrup. Cheese's freshly made bread, so there's more processing that goes into it, not necessarily as bad, right? Because we think about freshly made bread, it's going to have yeast and it's going to have sugar added to it, it's going to have different ingredients, but they're not necessarily chemical ingredients, they just have more processing than if you take a piece of chicken and put it in a pan and cook it with some olive oil, right? So a little more processing to enhance the flavor and the palatability of the food or to help preserve the food and keep it longer like canned vegetables, fruits, legumes, and things of that nature. This would also include things like nuts that have sugar on meats that are salted and cured of nitrates and and artisanal breads and cheeses so they've got just more ingredients added to them. Okay, that's a processed food. Nova for is ultra processed foods. These are the UPS these are classified as industrial formulations. Typically with five or more ingredients, industrial formulations, guys, they're not even called foods, okay? These ingredients include substances that are not commonly used in culinary preparations you would not cook with something you would find in a UPC F. These things can be artificial flavors, colors, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and other additives that imitate the qualities of unprocessed foods, or that disguise the quality, the undesirable qualities of a final product. So I don't know if anybody's ever seen like the videos that go around that show how hotdogs are made. But then there are colorings and things added to them so that they smell a certain way and they have a certain color to make them more palatable. So the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition said these foods in the Nova for Category ups are made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives. With little if any, intact from the Nova one food group. Right? So you may have started with a chicken breast, but by the time you get it to Nova for its little if anything left from the actual food, the actual whole food that it started with. So some examples of this would be fruit drinks, sweetened yogurts, sweet packaged snacks like cookies, candies, cake mixes, margarines, things that are labeled as spreads, right? Breakfast Cereals, energy, drink, instant soups and sauces, fish nuggets, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, ready to eat foods, like pre prepared pastas and pizzas and things of that nature. Okay, so now that you understand what they are, and I think I would as I was going through this and understanding the four Nova categories, I thought it was really important to think about the process one right Nova three processing, because I think when we think of processed foods, our minds kind of go to ups to ultra processed foods. And it's an important distinction to make. Because I wouldn't consider necessarily a Loof of whole wheat bread to be something that was not okay for your health or damaging to your microbiome, even though it falls under the category of a processed food. So I think it's important to understand the criteria there. It's when we get to the Nova four category, the ultra processing of food, that all kinds of stuff is added into it. That isn't food that was not intended to be in a human body. And here's some of the stuff that it does to us. So first of all, how much do we really eat? How much Ultra processed food do we really eat out? I ask people this when we talk about their diet, and especially someone's trying to focus on their diet, which is a big part of healing, right? A big part of recovering from breast cancer treatment, which just tears the body down. People want to focus on food. So when I asked this, oftentimes I'll hear I don't really eat that much. But then when we look at their food, and we journaled the food, and we take a real honest look at what's being consumed, most of the time, there's a lot more ups in their diet than they even realize. Okay, so what are the statistics about how much Ultra processed food the American diet actually consists of? Well, there was a study from 2022, that stated 60% of all calories consumed by Americans come from ultra processed foods, close that that's a lot. And the closest runner up was the UK, and the UK was between 35 and 40%. So there was another comprehensive database from the Northeastern University Network Science Institute. And they claimed that the United States food supply is 73% Ultra processed foods. Yikes. That's some scary stuff. And why is it scary? Why is it a problem? Let's talk about that. So there was a meta analysis and a meta analysis means that many different scientific studies were taken, put together. And then some really smart statistician looked at all the numbers, and came up with data involving everything. So we got this really big picture instead of just small isolated studies. So this meta analysis took these studies. And at the end of it, there were 462,292 participants with all of these studies accumulated. And it indicated that high consumption of ultra processed foods had a slight association with increased risk of breast cancer. And here's what they mean by slight for every 10% increment of ultra processed food consumption, there was a 5% increased risk of breast cancer. I know people who take and do different treatments, because their overall analysis from their oncologist puts them at a risk of 5% to 10% to 11%. Right. And so they'll go on things like vers Zinio or aromatase inhibitors, which, as you all know, some crazy side effects for many of us just to mitigate that risk. So wouldn't it be so much better? And I'm not saying get off of any of those things that you're taking? But what if you could reduce that risk even more? By getting Ultra processed foods out of your diet? Wouldn't that be worth it? There was another study, and I'll link to the studies in the show notes for this episode, which you can find at the breast cancer recovery coach.com, forward slash 308, or scroll down where you're listening to or watching this podcast, and you can just click on the links. But this study had over 600,000 participants, and it focused on a wide range of cancers, not just breast cancer. And what that study found was the highest consumption of ultra processed foods was associated with an increased risk for several cancers, including colorectal, colon and breast cancer. The Imperial College of London also did a large scale study within the UK Biobank and that also suggested that higher consumption of UPS was linked to an increased burden and mortality for overall and specific sight cancers. And those cancers were particularly ovarian cancer in women. So why does this happen? Why did these ups these ultra processed foods? Why do they cause damage? Why did they increase our risk? Let me tell you, they are known for a couple of reasons. But here it will start here. One of the things they do is they increase inflammation in the body. They have high sugar and refined carbohydrate content. And that leads to rapid spikes in blood sugar levels, right which triggers not only an inflammatory response, but a huge insulin response. And high consistently high blood sugar levels are known to produce oxidative stress and promote inflammation in the body. Alter processed foods, most of them have trans fats and saturated fats or high levels of saturated or trans fats, both of which are linked to chronic inflammation and these types of fats out we disrupt the normal cellular process, and they stimulate the body's inflammatory response. I want to just do a side note here because a lot of people when they talk about a ketogenic diet, they badmouth it because they say saturated fat, saturated fat. It's so unhealthy. And yes, saturated fat has some unhealthy things and can trigger the inflammatory response, which is why a ketogenic diet, if you're doing it right should not be packed with saturated fat. It should be packed with healthy polyunsaturated fats, olive oils, avocado, oils, nuts, and seeds. You know, the actual nuts and seeds that have good oils inside of them not pressed seed oils that have we'll talk about those later. They have solvents and everything in them. That's for another podcast. But another thing in Ultra processed foods is the artificial additives. So preservatives, colorings, flavorings, and textures. I don't think most people realize the industry behind Ultra processed foods. So when I was first trying to find my way to do what I wanted to do, when I grew up, one of the degrees that I started to work towards was a degree in food science. And what I discovered when I started working in food science, or studying food science, was that it wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. But it was about making Franken foods, it was about creating fragrances to make a french fries smell the way that makes your mouth water. It was about serving people to understand what colors of food their brain responded to most to make them want to eat it and eat more. So the processed food industry is this crazy industry of science and psychology and marketing. And they spend billions of dollars and have lots of really smart people working to create foods that have a certain mouthfeel that have a specific flavor that have a color, not to be nutritionally sound to be attractive to you to make you want to eat more of it. Because that's the business they're in selling fake food. So I think it's really important to understand, it's not just like, wow, that food is so good. Yeah, it is so good. Because a bunch of science went behind to what kind of chemicals do we put in it to trigger every dopamine center in the brain and make it go off and say I want more, I want more. So there's a lot behind why you want to eat those foods. And yet they do a lot of damage in the body. Ultra processed foods are very low, typically in nutrient density. So they're low in fiber, vitamins, minerals, oftentimes, you'll see that they add some vitamins back into it, and they'll promote it added vitamin C right added vitamin D, we'll why not go to the whole food and not worry about somebody creating a synthetic version of the vitamin found in a whole food and then putting it into a fake food, right? fiber, vitamins, minerals, these are crucial for supporting a healthy immune system and reducing inflammation. And so a lack of nutrients from having a high amount of these foods in your diet can again lead to a chronic state of low grade inflammation. They disrupt the gut microbiome, and if your list Regulus, in this podcast, you know I talk about the gut microbiome a lot. It is so important. It's been studied more and more. We're learning so much more. And it's absolutely fascinating. The impact that our gut microbiome has on our mood, on our health, on our ability to think all the things that we do. So the consumption of ultra processed foods can negatively impact the microbiome. Because one of the really important things in the microbiome is diversity. And Ultra processed foods can disrupt the balance of the diversity of all of the bacteria and all the little living critters that are in your microbiome. And your immune system needs that to be strong and to function well. So when UPS disrupt this, you end up with what's called gut dysbiosis. Because the flora everything grown in your gut is not good, it gets thrown off and then that gut dysbiosis increases inflammation even more in your body. Ultra processed foods are known to contribute to obesity and metabolic syndrome. Regular consumption of these high calorie foods leads to excess fat and metabolic irregularities, which then again, perpetuate more inflammation In the body. And for that reason, ultra processed foods can be considered as obesogenic foods, due to several factors that contribute to weight gain. Now, we're going to talk in a second about what obesogens aren't because Ultra processed foods are not obesogens in the strictest sense. And you'll understand why in a minute, because they're not necessarily chemical agents that disrupt your endocrine function, your hormone system, but their composition and the effects on the body lead to similar outcomes to those caused by traditional obesogens. So obesogens are classes of chemicals that are believed to contribute to obesity. And that's because they're known to disrupt your endocrine system. So they're believed to interfere with the body's hormonal systems, especially the hormones that regulate fat and metabolism. So the effects of obesogens can be varied. But here's some of the things that they do. They alter your fat storage and metabolism obesogens can potentially increase the storage of fat in your body or change the metabolic processes that are related to fat storage. And this again, can lead to an imbalance in energy storage, because remember, food is energy, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, they are the fuel right? When we're talking about food as fuel, vitamins don't give you fuel minerals don't give you fuel fuel the macronutrients do. And when we don't use them all up, when we consume more than we expend, we store them as energy. So obesogens can imbalance, this energy storage and expenditure system even more and contribute to weight gain and obesity. They actually affect your appetite control. So obesogens influence your hormones that regulate your appetite, and your satiety. And so that leads to an increased food intake because you don't feel satisfied. And that happens, because they don't have all the stuff that the whole foods have in them, particularly high amounts of nutrients, and fiber. And those are the things that help to lead to good satiety. And in the way that they affect the energy balance. Studies have also shown that obesogens can potentially reduce the number of calories burned at rest, or during physical activity. So these chemicals, these additives on our bodies, they are wreaking havoc, and think about, especially after menopause, and after breast cancer treatment, I hear this often I am doing everything I can and I can't lose weight. This is why toxic burden is one of the 10 buckets in the terrain 10 Because a toxic burden has an impact on a lot of functions in your body. And obesogens are part of that toxic burden, ultra processed foods are part of that toxic burden. So they actually affect the way that your body would normally work. And they can play a big role in your ability or inability to maintain a healthy weight. They even influenced the development of fat cells, okay? They studies have found play a role in the development and the differentiation of adipocytes of fat cells that are responsible for storing fat. And they affect them in that they increase the number or size of these cells and contribute more to obesity. Now, I said in the very beginning of this, if you could commit to yourself to not have ultra processed foods in your house, or put them in your body. When I say that to a lot of clients, fear comes up and one of the objections is, but my husband likes them, but my kid likes them. Well, these foods actually contribute to developmental effects. Meaning that studies have shown that exposure to these obesogens are critical during periods of development, especially in the womb, or during early childhood, and that they may predispose individuals to obesity later in life. So some of the things that we have to consider here when right but they like them, you know, they they like the ding dongs Are they like this? Well, I love creme brulee and a good Martini too, but they're not good for my health. So I have to make a conscious decision not to put them in my body. I don't want the effect that they're going to cause. So sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that the joy is this immediate gratification biting into this ultra processed food that's going to set off dopamine receptors in your brain and be like, Oh, this is the best thing ever. Right and this is how it becomes an emotional crutch as well. And then we tell ourselves like, this is disciplined to not have them, we feel deprived if we don't have them, which is just a story you're telling yourself. And so we tell ourselves the story that you're going to deprive yourself of them because you're trying to attain some kind of a health goal. But you don't want to deprive your family of them. Trust me, do your family a favor, deprive them of that shit, right? They're not missing out on anything. The joy is in learning to eat well, the joy is in learning to have a healthy diet full of good Whole Foods that are delicious, that are satisfying, and that support you through your life to maintain a healthy, strong body. That's the joy. So we really sometimes have to reframe the story we tell ourselves about what's joyful, right? Is eating foods that have obesogens, we're having things in your house that have obesogens. Is this joyful, right? So common examples of obesogens are plastics, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. And these are things that are found in products in the environment, and we get widespread exposure to them. I see these things on and on. I see among commercials like these little chemical beads that people put in their laundry to make their laundry have a fragrance for like weeks at a time. Those kinds of things are obesogens. Okay, so technically, when it comes to ultra processed foods, they don't fit exactly into that chemical category. But these are the qualities of ultra processed foods that lead to having the same outcomes as obesogens, which is why processed foods Ultra processed foods are considered obesogenic. And those qualities are high calorie density. So as we said, usually they're high in sugars, fats, refined carbohydrates. And so they're very calorie dense versus nutrient dense. If you eat the whole food, it's got more nutrition in it. And that low nutrient quality of a UPDF is also one of the things that leans towards obesogenic. And they're usually low in vitamins and minerals. And because of that, that kind of feeds into the satiety so you don't get as satiated, which we tend to over eat those kinds of foods, because our body needs a certain amount of nutrients, and it will kept sending signals, it's a feed me more, because I'm deficient in these things. And that's how Ultra processed foods affect your hormonal responses that are related to hunger and satiety. So they don't induce that same level of satiety as Whole Foods, we eat more, they influence your gut microbiome, well, like we talked about a minute ago, by altering the composition of what's growing inside of our gut, and then that plays a role in energy metabolism and obesity. Now, another thing and I think this is really big, impactful thing to consider, because as we age, and when we go through breast cancer treatment, especially chemotherapy, brain fog is a huge complaint, fatigue in the middle of the day, and the way that the brain works, many women struggle with an ultra processed foods can have an impact on your brain chemistry. So this is really a growing field of research. But so far, neuroscientists have found several mechanisms that they think explain how Ultra processed foods affect the brain. So one is, as I mentioned before the dopamine release and your reward pathways. So because Ultra processed foods are high in sugar, fat, and salt, they stimulate the brain's reward system, and the more you eat them, the more dopamine you release, Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that's associated with pleasure and rewards in our brain. And so this activation creates a feedback loop. And it encourages you to eat more and more of these foods leading to what is perceived as addictive like behaviors. It has an impact on our mood and our mental health. Because studies suggest that these diets that are high in Ultra processed foods are associated with increased risk of depression and mental health issues. They think that that's due to the inflammation that's caused by the foods as well as the impact on gut health. Both inflammation and gut health are very closely linked to brain health and affects cognitive functions. Consuming a high amount of ultra processed foods has a negative impact on memory and attention. This could be related and you know, studies rarely say this is like this is what causes it but they say that this is related to the high sugar content of these foods that leads to fluctuating sugar levels and fluctuating sugar levels affect brain function. As I say that As the story comes to mind, and I think about my father, he had type two diabetes, he was morbidly obese. And he really didn't control his blood sugar. He just he struggled a lot with, with food and food addiction. And when his blood sugar was really high, he would literally hallucinate. There were some things, and there was a period of time where you couldn't be left alone, because his blood sugar was so unregulated, that it would spike. And he would do horrible things you know, he would do, he wouldn't, he wouldn't be in touch with reality. That's how much spiking blood sugar levels can affect your brain. And especially if your whole metabolism is dysregulated, as his was and as many people are, if you have two type two diabetes, right? It affects the gut brain access. So the gut brain access is this communication system between your gut and your brain. And because Ultra processed foods alter your gut microbiome, it changes the signals that the gut sends to your brain, and it affects the function of your brain health and your behaviors. A healthy well diverse gut microbiome is crucial for the production of neurotransmitters that regulate inflammation, which is also part of brain health. I mean, that's a wild stuff. Ultra processed foods, again, nutrition deficiencies. And how that affects the brain is that essential nutrients are crucial for the brain, like healthy fatty acids, omega three acids, certain vitamins and certain minerals. And so a high a diet high and ultra processed foods and low in these minerals and fatty acids can lead to deficiencies and impact your brain function and your mental health. And with all the things that these foods again, I hate even calling them foods due to our gut, also, they inflame the gut barrier function. So some studies have showed that certain ingredients and ultra processed foods contribute to inflammation in the gut. And this inflammation harms the gut barrier function. What does that mean? It means that we have these cells that layer our intestines, because when we eat food, it's got to get out into the body, right. But also, there's waste, and there's metabolic waste, and there's food waste. And we don't want that getting into the body, we want that to get filtered out of the body and come out in our urine and feces. But when the gut barrier is affected with inflammation, and this is something we really need to focus on, especially after chemotherapy, because chemotherapy is known to cause leaky gut, and gut barrier, inflammation causes leaky gut, what that means is the gaps in those cells in your intestines get bigger than they're supposed to. So substances that normally would not go through that gut barrier and get into the bloodstream, do get through, and they can be very harmful substances that leak into the bloodstream, creating more inflammation, and impacting your metabolic health even further. And finally, this is a really interesting thing. One of the things that these ultra processed foods and the way that they affect our gut is that they affect the short chain fatty acid production. So what that means is that we have beneficial gut bacteria in our gut, and these bacteria from many dietary fibers. And they actually in that fermentation process, they produce what's called short chain fatty acids. And short chain fatty acids have lots of different positive effects on our health. But a diet low in fiber, because of high Ultra processed food consumption, decreases short chain fatty acid production, and has more negative implications on our gut, on our brain and on our overall health. So I could go on, I could go on for a really long time. But I think that's enough, right? Is that enough to understand that these ultra processed foods impact your body in such a way that forget going to the gym, forget paying anybody for anything, forget buying the newest diet craze. Forget all of the physical transformation challenges that start up on January 1. And just ask yourself, can I eliminate Ultra processed foods from my diet? What would happen because here's the thing, if you stop eating the ultra processed foods, what are you going to fill the gap with more whole food and that more whole food is going to help to heal your gut. It's going to help to reduce inflammation. It can be fun, it can inspire you creatively to learn how to You consume Whole Foods on a regular basis. And if you like to cook, how to cook them in different ways, if you don't like to cook, how to simplify them, there are so many Cookbooks and food books out there. They're like three ingredient meals, five ingredient meals that they focus on whole foods, I often look in, there's an app called Tasty, tasty up. And you can put in there, five ingredients, or three ingredients are making 15 minutes, I once ordered of from a food service that someone had recommended, and I thought I would check out this food service. And when it came, the recipes were all like 45 minutes to an hour to prepare. And I thought I don't want to do that. Now I love to cook. But when I cook that way, most of my meals on a regular basis are very simple. Because I don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen, I'm doing other things with my time. But then there are days because I enjoy cooking that I devote that time to cooking. And I don't mind spending an hour or two or even longer in the kitchen. It's a lot of fun for me, but not on a daily basis on a regular basis. That doesn't work with my lifestyle. So know that if you're thinking oh, I don't want to cook at home. And I want easy. There are lots of ways to feed yourself easily, simply and quickly, without consuming Ultra processed foods. All right. I hope that helps you that that understanding what they actually do to your body, that you start to realize this one change, could change lots of things for the better, and increase your health in 2024. And save you money. Because you're going to be cutting out all that extra crap. We don't need all that snacks, we don't need all that crap. When we sit there and sit down to watch a show or think I wish I had a snack, you'll get over it.

Laura Lummer 41:54
I do that all the time. I love potato chips. I do not buy potato chips. If they're in my house, I'll eat them, especially if they're Trader Joe's white truffle potato chips. And if I eat one, I will eat more than one. It isn't a lie to say that food addiction is strong and my family and I know that and I realize that and I accept that and I embrace it. And so I say to myself, What do I have to do to continue to support the way I want to eat to continue to support my health and my healthy weight. And some of the things I have to do is keep things that I can't say no to or won't say no to out of my house, I have to do it. It's okay. There are times when I sit down I think I really wish I had a potato chip right now. But I don't and you know what, I'm not gonna get up and run out and go buy a bag of potato chips. And so it helps me because all I have to do is process that urge. The urge is there. I wish I had a potato chip. I don't have a potato chip. I turned to things like well, I'm gonna pour a glass of lemon cello Lacroix or a key lime Lacroix and maybe put a Luxardo cherry in it, you know and do something else that just satisfies an urge but isn't unhealthy for me and isn't putting a bunch of processed food in me. So there are ways around it. And working on your thoughts about why you eat these foods is an important thing to start with. And ask yourself what's wrong with having to process craving, right, you'll have cravings, cravings will come up and you'll be able to get through them. The key to having a healthy lifestyle is finding a way to eat that you enjoy. Because gross food nobody's gonna stick with for a long time boring food, forget about it. So you enjoy it. It's easy. It works with your life is simple. And it doesn't leave you feeling brain fog, bloated, exhausted, temperamental. You know, even people who say I'm hangry hangry is a sign of a broken metabolism. Your body should be able to go for more than a few hours without food. Right? I think I talked about on a podcast before how I got in the car to do a road trip with my sisters and is a road trip was approximately four hours before we would stop for lunch and then another four hours to finish the trip. And one of my sisters is like packing up all the stacks. And I said what the hell? You guys it's four hours. We can go without food for four hours. What is happening here, right? But we have just, I don't know, somehow adopted in again, marketing and food companies have great marketing. And they've convinced us we have dev snacks all the time. We're not puppies. We don't have to have snacks all the time. We can support our health and go for periods of time without food. It's going to be okay. Go back and listen to the podcast. I did I think it was last week on fasting and understand the benefits that our bodies have Get and reap from going for periods of time without food. And then how when you come into that feeding window in that feeding period, you want to put nourishing satiating and delicious food inside of you. All right, my friends, let's make this a year of good health and know that keeping Ultra processed foods out of your house and out of your mouth is an act of self love for all the reasons we talked about on this show. All right, take care and I will talk to you very soon.

Speaker 1 45:35
Courage to the test laid all your doubts your mind is clearer than before your heart is wanting more your futures Give it all you know. You've been waiting on.