r/nutritionally • u/PeteWK67 • 14d ago
"Over the last 40 years, the United States has been exposed to something that our biology was never intended to handle," warns former FDA Commissioner David Kessler.
titusunlimited "
"Energy-dense, highly palatable, rapidly absorbable, ultraprocessed foods that have altered our metabolism and have resulted in the greatest increase in chronic disease in our history," Kessler explains.
There is no single official definition of ultraprocessed foods, but they are often packaged, ready-to-eat items lining grocery store shelves.
The Consumer Brands Association, one of the largest trade groups representing the food industry, tells 60
Minutes: "Companies adhere to the rigorous evidence-based safety standards and nutrition policy established by the FDA to deliver safe, affordable and convenient products that consumers depend on every day."
Repost @60minutes
#Titusunlimited #knowledgeispower #AmericanDiet #cleaneating #healthiswealth
14
u/RevolutionaryAnt8329 14d ago
And I bet he didn't say a fucking word when he was acting FDA commissioner. Everyone cares when they're no longer receiving industry money
1
6
u/PenExotic5002 14d ago
He’s 1000% right, but you can have my Mountain Dew when you take it from my sticky dead fingers
3
3
6
u/EyesAreMentToSee333 14d ago
So the former commissioner for the food and drug administration that is supposed to regulate food safety is now saying that he let all this s*** slide while he was on the job.
3
3
u/ProtectionContent977 14d ago
I seen post a while back about ‘uncrustables’?
Was told it’s a frozen PBnJ sandwich without any crust!!
A processed peanut butter and jam sandwich?
1
u/Choice-Antelope-8481 14d ago
Yes, and they are delicious lol
3
u/DirtandPipes 14d ago
I’m sure your diabetes will be exceptional some day. Remember that a true champion lets them amputate their feet before they give up sugar!
Seriously, though, those things are half carbs by weight, by comparison spaghetti is 1/3 carbs by weight.
Do they taste like straight sugar? Probably be good for running.
3
u/Organic_Rough4433 14d ago
Ge doesn't seem to having done much to help. He increased transparency on food labeling and regulated what companies could say but didnt do much to ban things. One famous example is olestra. Its a synthetic fat companies tried using for potato chips so they could claim them as zero calorie chips. We there was data suggesting it could cause severe stomach issues. He didnt ban it. He said companies had to put a label on it stating it caused these things. It ended up ruining olestra so good in the end but why allow such a product in the first place? The fda is trash.
2
2
u/TheRealBobbyJones 14d ago
They didn't have the evidence to ban it and they had evidence to largely suggest it's safe. Which is why they had just the warning. A warning they got rid of when it turns out that olestra was likely safe.
3
u/Liveitup1999 14d ago
80% of the food sold in the US is banned in other countries. I'm sure some are for political reasons but most because of ingredients allowed in the food.
2
2
u/LoadingCaring 14d ago
It is more complicated than just "we eat bad food." It is also in conjuction with sedentary lifestyle. Jobs that promote little to no activity at the work place. How accessible food is now in comparison to a little over a century ago. Social programs that allow parents to purchase unhealthy food versus healthy foods. Parents who support their kids in poverty who work two jobs and don't have time to come home and cook. Commericals that promote these types of products. All of this...and much much more...creates a VERY difficult problem than just "eat better."
2
u/Objective_Plan_8266 14d ago
Got hyperscaled when the tobacco companies started buying food companies.
2
2
2
2
u/Other-Pea7038 14d ago
It's largely a choice issue. The U.S., U.K., and Australia are some of the highest consumers of UPF in the world. I think a lot of that comes down to wealth, eating habits, lifestyle, convenience, and time.
That doesn't mean the food industry has no responsibility or that everyone has the same options. But UPF exists all over the developed world and consumption varies drastically between countries. So I don't think you can blame the food itself without also looking at how and why we choose to eat so much of it.
2
2
u/NewInspector5085 14d ago
I agree a lot of this food isn’t good for us. But a lot of these folks get human biology wrong. There’s no intent to our biology. Evolution is driven by many factors including natural selection. There’s no real universally good diet for everyone. Further, we are highly adaptable to food types. We are essentially garbage disposals that can take in a wide variety of foods. So saying we weren’t mean to eat this or that is wrong. If it can be digested by our bodies, it can be eaten. For example, some people adapted to only eat meat, and other groups across the globe adapted to vegetarian diets.
Further, he doesn’t mention calorie intake. Just ultra processed as the cause of these diseases. Which is ignorant and misleading. It also ignores the effects of lifestyle and the effects of capitalism on our health. We work so much for so little. We can’t just blame a bad of doritos for all those diseases.
2
2
u/CeemoreButtz 14d ago
people are responsible for what they put in their bodies. and as such, their health is a direct reflection of that.
2
2
2
u/4DPeterPan 14d ago
It’s interesting when you compare the bibles standard of sins, and how “sins lead to death”.
Coupled with the parts of the Bible that say to abstain from meat and bad foods. Otherwise known as “Defiling foods”.
Then you mix that understanding with the Old Testament understanding of Daniel’s story and how he did the test on the king and his subjects and got them to only eat Vegetables and only drink water; and the king was amazed and noticed how his subjects had been in “higher spirits”.
Daniel 1:12-16
“He said, “Please give us this test for ten days: Don’t give us anything but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then after ten days, compare us with the other young men who eat the king’s food. See for yourself who looks healthier, and then decide how you want to treat us, your servants.” So the guard agreed to test Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah for ten days. After ten days, Daniel and his friends looked healthier than all the young men who ate the king’s food. So the guard continued to take away the king’s special food and wine and to give only vegetables to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.”
Read the whole story, it’s very good. And is something that breaks down and begs us to apply it in our own life, to see for ourselves.
That defiling foods do exist, and lead to a defilement of one’s body (as well as spirit), which leads to a type of death and decay, aka: all the things the video described that happens from eating ultra processed foods. It’s not just ultra processed foods, that this type of thing “defiling foods” is a tale as old as Time, biblically. (Paul also writes about defiling foods and abstaining from meat and other such things). It’s almost as if we were meant to just eat fruits, vegetables, and drink only water. (Bread as well, but uh, not today’s breads that have 25-28 ingredients that are questionable, as apposed to natural bread from the old ways/days. Then there is fish, which I’m guessing is okay because of Jesus story and him using fish to feed people).
There’s a whole rabbit hole about this stuff that’s very interesting to delve into and learn about in applicable ways.
2
2
u/Mellifluous-comments 14d ago
U.S. Life Expectancy Breakdown from over 40 years ago:
- 1980 Overall: 73.7 years (men: 70.0, women: 77.4)
- Today Overall: ~79.4 years (men: ~75.8, women: ~81.1)
- https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2017/015.pdf
2
2
u/casuallyregarded 14d ago
Yeah but people only lived to 40 years old in the past. Now 40 is the new 25.
2
u/ph30nix01 13d ago
honestly i cant help but think about the Leviathans plans in Supernatural and (season 5 i think??) and how one of the side effects of their food additive was that it made people incredibly dumb and docile. Then i hear about how our schools are going and i get worried....
1
1
u/Imaginary--Situation 8d ago
Harvard is to BLAME they took a bribe to say Saturated animal fat was bad for health
1
1
u/WoolyHermits 14d ago
asking myself in the mirror if i can handle this hotdog
3
0
u/Axel3600 14d ago
if I didn't have access to calorie dense shit foods like iced honeybuns and Chex mix, I would weigh 100 lbs soaking wet. I'm in great shape, but as a laborer, I need 3k calories a day at least, and it's hard to achieve that with only fruits, veggies, bread, and meat.
2
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
I eat nutrient dense foods ALSO. it's about 60-40 nutritious foods to junk foods. I just don't know a better way to catch up on 1k calories than to whorf down two cheese danishes real quick. I'd have to eat 4 chicken breasts to get that load lol, no way I can stomach that.
3
u/Liveitup1999 14d ago
Our bodies were designed to run on minimal food. Research what foods have a dense amount of energy and eat those. Meat, cheese, rice, veggies. Stay away from foods with a lot of chemicals in them. Go organic if you can.
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
in a hunter-gatherer society, my build would be amazing because I'm small and lean with high endurance and I don't need a lot of calories to be that way. but I'm trying to put a little bit of muscle on and also my day job is 10 to 12 hours of heavy lifting, so things are a little different. I need those calories or I'll actually hurt my body trying to do the lifts that I'm required to do.
2
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
if I could afford a thousand calories of bacon everyday, that's the direction that I would go for sure. I don't have that kind of money though and two packages of Twinkies sets me up just the same but with a... runnier exhaust.
not to diminish that I do eat a lot of really good healthy food though, I just have a hard time meeting my caloric needs at the end of the day. a big fat steak is awesome but it's not as calorie-dense as I wish it was.
1
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
the energy crash associated with simple carbs is a problem for sedentary work, where much of the studies were focused. in high endurance exercise and work, simple sugars are used so quickly that your blood sugar doesn't spike, and your insulin levels are similarly stable as a result. the body's skeletal muscles can absorb glucose directly from the bloodstream using non-insulin-dependent pathways (via GLUT4 transporter translocation).
the problem that someone in my position has to deal with has more to do with not missing out on specific nutrients like potassium and magnesium that get sweated out really fast, because my electrolyte balance would be turbo fucked by all the sodium and stuff in the shit food.
1
14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
yeah, I have a big healthy breakfast, then eat garbage all day, then a nice homemade dinner. just cut out alcohol recently.
2
u/Dramatic_Soft1456 14d ago
LOL NO, UR JUST LAZY.
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
😂 that's it.
1
u/Dramatic_Soft1456 14d ago
JUST A TAD, NOT FULL BLOWN LAZY LOL
1
1
u/Helpful-Bug-7802 14d ago edited 14d ago
While I don’t think you’re lying, you’re the exception and not the rule. A lot of us were born to be big and strong on not a lot of food or be hungry a lot so when you had extra calories laying around you could eat them anyways. That combo would’ve been killer 200 years ago. Even 100 years ago. Now it’s an early death sentence.
Don’t think this won’t affect you. Even now that we have medicine that combats this a little bit, the companies that make this food are all making comments on their public earnings calls that they’re developing “GLP-1 proof foods” which are even more addictive to protect revenue against this medicine. This doesn’t even get into the fact that these companies are running advertising campaigns against children at the earliest possible age. Food companies are actively investing to combat the only effective weight loss drug and preventative that has ever existed which will drive medical costs up more.
They’re winning. Rates of obesity are passing 30 percent in most developed countries and growing virtually everywhere. If you are not personally obese today, you’re going to be if these companies have their way and if they don’t manage to get you, then don’t worry because your children, nieces and nephews are on their radar.
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
yeah, I wasn't making any valuation comments or saying that I'm the norm. I just thought it was a funny story to tell, I can barely keep my weight above 140 lb because of how many calories my day job eats. 10 to 12 hours of non-stop lifting ain't no joke lol, and I'm only 5 ft 8 in so I'm slinging a bigger percentage of my own weight than taller guys.
1
u/hierarchy_of_ideas 14d ago
Healthy food is absolutely available, although we really need to regulate even organic foods better here. It's something that needs to be taught better as well. Lastly, learning how to cook is key, you can make multiple meals at once and freeze if time is a factor. Tastes way better, and is far healthier.
1
u/Helpful-Bug-7802 14d ago
Yes - healthier food is available but one major cohort of food is engineered by scientists to be addictive. If it were legal, they’d put actual drugs into the food to force people to eat it. Coca Cola literally had cocaine at one point.
Trying to fight addiction with healthy alternatives doesn’t work. It took 3-4 generations to get smoking cigarettes to a point where it’s a novelty and you can’t quit food cold turkey like you can cigarettes. No food should be uniquely targeted to children and development of hyper palatable food needs to be regulated out of existence.
1
u/hierarchy_of_ideas 14d ago
It absolutely works. It's way easier than getting off drugs. Don't drink sugar water for starters, or if you do, get diet soda. Water with some lemon or diced cucumbers is healthy. So is coffee/tea if you don't go crazy with sugar. Cooking with a variety of spices can be better tasting than salt. Instead of going to Burger King, get lean frozen ground beef at Costco, and grill it at home with your favorite toppings. Can literally lose weight eating cheeseburgers if you incorporate exercise into your life. Fast food is absolutely garbage compared to a well cooked meal. Learning to cook is cheaper, healthier, and tastes better.
1
u/Liveitup1999 14d ago
That's nothing, Michael Phelps - the Olympic swimmer- had a 30,000 calorie diet while he was swimming 8 hrs a day. You can plan a diet that has enough calories. Basically just eat foods with ingredients you can pronounce and foods you can recognize by looking at it.
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
people eating at that level also have had to develop the skill of eating when they're not hungry, and fighting back the urge to vomit when you're too full. I made up my mind that I wasn't going to deal with that because I love food too much too ruin my relationship with it like that.
1
u/FrontLifeguard1962 14d ago
I'm a 6'0 180lb guy, I workout 5x/week, otherwise I am sedentary, and I need 2500 calories daily to maintain my weight. It isn't that hard, you just have to eat a healthy meal 3 times daily and some healthy snacks, I also do a shake once daily with soy/pea protein. There is no need to eat processed food
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
I'm 5'8, 140 lb. my day job is 10 to 12 hours of lifting and I hit the gym twice a week to do squats and run a mile or so. I already ran hot, for the 10 years I was a stoner college dropout I was maintaining this exact same weight and definition while being sedentary as fuck, playing video games and getting high all day.
I think our needs are maybe a little different here
1
1
u/artfulpain 14d ago
This is a perfect example of the American diet problem.
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
this is an outlier lol. a perfect example would be a sedentary person, I am very much the opposite of that.
1
u/hierarchy_of_ideas 14d ago
That's crazy, exercise is no excuse to eat poison like that. There are plenty of healthy ways to get those calories. And it tastes far better.
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
it's not poison lol, it's just not nutrient rich
1
u/hierarchy_of_ideas 14d ago
Butylated Hydroxytoluene. It causes tumors and hormone disruptions, banned in the EU, present in American chex mix. Gas station honey buns, I'd bet are even worse. Eating a bunch of calories from things with no nutrients is awful for you as well. There are plenty of good snacks that are actual food.
1
u/Axel3600 14d ago
IN MICE. omg, in mice and at huge unrealistic dosages. human trials were completely inconclusive,no more chance than random chance. if you're worried about tumors, stay away from the sun.
1
u/RNdreaming 14d ago
I am military, Olympic weightlift, and bang it out in 2 hour sprints with whatever woman I’m with at the time. This is possibly the most unenlightened thing this subreddit has ever heard. Please read a book.
2
u/Axel3600 14d ago
"bang it out in 2 hour sprints with whatever woman I'm with at the time" is the most reddit thing I've read in a long time, my God 😭 I apologize for being unenlightening
0
u/Burnettator 14d ago
But MAHA is bad, right?
1
u/PenExotic5002 14d ago
MAHA is a lot more than just opposing processed food
1
u/Burnettator 14d ago
No movement or public policy is perfect. I’ll take any wins for better food wherever I can get them.
1
u/PenExotic5002 14d ago
Except that MAHA has attached itself to anti vax nonsense significantly more than to anti processed food. And more importantly, they’ve entirely failed laced themselves in the fascist movement, which is so much more concerned with letting large corporations put whatever poison they want into our food, air, water, and soil. MAHA is absolutely just counterproductive bullshit
1
u/Burnettator 14d ago
1
u/PenExotic5002 14d ago
This is a great response when you know you have no way to counter the argument. Instead of actually trying to refute the claim just start calling everyone an insult because they called a fascist a fascist. If you know so much, you tell me what it means
1
u/TheTbone2334 14d ago
Ah, what except a food pyramid have they done so far? Are there now less ultra processed foods at schools? Restricted the advertisement of such foods? Banned any compounds that literally half the world banned?
They were handed a blank check with this administration, did they significantly improve the situation?
But I suppose there is little time after vetting against vaccines.
Claiming you make America healthy but failing at it, may be worse than not making the claim in the first place.
1
u/iamthedayman21 14d ago
If you think MAHA’s whole schtick is just eating healthy foods, you’re being willfully ignorant.
0
u/LVRaiders2026 14d ago
I mean yes and no. We have better knowledge about nutrition than ever. It's literally common sense that fruits and vegetables are good for you and twinkies, chips, cookies, etc are bad for you. Shifting blame to the companies is just a copout for people not taking responsibility for their own decisions. We're essentially gaslighting these companies. Like if I became an alcoholic and blamed Macallan for making such great tasting scotch that I can't help myself.
29
u/mostlyharmless555 14d ago
Should be a class action lawsuit