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[00:00:15] Hello, I'm Nazanin Motamedi, and in this episode of 37 Degrees, I'm going to tell you about
[00:00:18] ultra-processed foods. I'll show you what kind of
[00:00:22] damage these foods do to the body by conducting an experiment on myself, and
[00:00:25] why we can't stop eating them. Also, later in this
[00:00:29] program, I'll reveal what only
[00:00:33] 7 days of eating these foods did to my weight and
[00:00:37] the likelihood of developing cancer. Your immunity
[00:00:41] against morbid obesity decreased by 20% in just one
[00:00:44] week.
[00:00:45] How do these foods cause
[00:00:48] more than half the population to
[00:00:51] become overweight or morbidly obese?
[00:00:54] King's College London
[00:00:57] has conducted extensive research in recent years on the effect of
[00:01:01] ultra-processed foods on health, some of which
[00:01:04] seem like healthy foods, such as low-fat yogurt and pre-sliced
[00:01:08] bread. But the initial results of their research
[00:01:12] show that these types of foods are linked to an increased risk of
[00:01:16] various cancers, heart disease, stroke,
[00:01:19] and even dementia. I tried this diet
[00:01:23] for just one week to see what effect it would have on my health.
[00:01:27] The result: Many of us haven't
[00:01:35] even heard of it, but it has recently been proven that eating
[00:01:38] this group of foods is linked to an
[00:01:41] increased incidence of heart attack, stroke, some cancers,
[00:01:45] and even dementia. What are
[00:01:48] ultra-processed foods?
[00:01:52] What are these groups of foods?
[00:01:56] How did they so quickly make their way into household shopping baskets?
[00:02:00] Why can't we stop eating them? I didn't know anything about them
[00:02:04] until recently, but I thought, what better way to get to
[00:02:07] know them than to experiment on myself?
[00:02:10] But I wish I hadn't.
[00:02:14] I have severe stomach pain and
[00:02:17] a bad headache. But first,
[00:02:21] let's see what ultra-processed foods are. A group of
[00:02:24] experts, citing research conducted in the last two or three
[00:02:27] decades, believe that
[00:02:31] instead of identifying unhealthy foods by their salt,
[00:02:35] sugar, and fat content, we should categorize foods
[00:02:38] based on the degree of processing and industrial changes,
[00:02:41] chemical additives, etc.
[00:02:44] And for more explanation on this topic, who better than
[00:02:48] Dr. Panham, a specialist from Imperial College London,
[00:02:51] who has been working in this field for several years? Dr. Panham categorizes
[00:02:55] foods based on their processing into several
[00:02:58] groups. The first group is unprocessed or
[00:03:02] minimally processed foods. These are ingredients that have not been
[00:03:06] altered, and we receive them from nature in their original
[00:03:10] state. They are untouched. Sometimes they are only slightly processed
[00:03:14] to make them edible and harmless. For example,
[00:03:17] milk is pasteurized or pasta or rice is
[00:03:21] boiled to make it edible. We cook
[00:03:25] or fry meat to be able to eat it. But these are simple
[00:03:28] tasks that can be done at home.
[00:03:46] Oil can be made from olives, or butter is made from milk.
[00:03:49] Also, various spices, salt, and sugar are
[00:03:53] in this group. We usually add these ingredients to the
[00:03:56] first group of ingredients to enhance the flavor of our food
[00:04:00] and make them easier to eat.
[00:04:03] And these first two groups are harmless. Their consumption does not cause serious
[00:04:07] harm. These are used very widely.
[00:04:11] Of course, regarding butter and oil, we need to be mindful of
[00:04:14] their effect on our health, but we can easily
[00:04:18] incorporate them into a healthy and balanced
[00:04:21] diet. So, let's move on to the third group. This
[00:04:25] group consists of processed foods, such as the process involved in
[00:04:29] making cheese, or canned vegetables,
[00:04:32] or jam, and homemade bread. But the important point
[00:04:36] in this type of processing is that you can do this processing in
[00:04:39] your own kitchen, and it doesn't need to be produced in a
[00:04:43] factory. Very well, and the fourth group. These
[00:04:47] are ultra-processed foods that have been processed
[00:04:51] on an industrial scale. This means that a process has been applied to them
[00:04:54] that cannot be done in a normal kitchen, and in the
[00:04:58] list of ingredients.
[00:05:12] And made using only sourdough, flour, water,
[00:05:16] and salt. But most breads we see in
[00:05:19] supermarkets are ultra-processed. Because
[00:05:22] for their preparation, both industrial additives
[00:05:26] and preservatives have been added to prevent mold
[00:05:30] for longer. Until now, I thought some of these foods
[00:05:34] in this group were healthy, for example, low-fat yogurt, this bread,
[00:05:37] or breakfast cereals and cornflakes, but apparently not,
[00:05:40] right? This yogurt is a good example because it seems
[00:05:44] very healthy and its fat percentage is
[00:05:47] zero. But when you look at the ingredient
[00:05:50] list, you see it contains chemical additives that
[00:05:54] are not necessary in yogurt, including modified
[00:05:58] corn starch. The fat percentage of this yogurt is
[00:06:02] zero, but its taste is completely sweet. If
[00:06:05] factories remove fat, they often have to add
[00:06:09] something else instead to preserve
[00:06:12] the taste and texture. This is where they process the ingredient heavily
[00:06:16] and add a lot of artificial ingredients to it. Superficially,
[00:06:20] buying fruit yogurts seems like a good way to consume
[00:06:24] fruit. But we see fruits like apples and tomatoes
[00:06:27] used in fruit yogurts are so processed that they appear
[00:06:31] in a form where their very nature has changed,
[00:06:34] and what remains for you is just
[00:06:38] sugar, not fiber and essential minerals.
[00:06:43] But how do we know if a food is ultra-processed
[00:06:46] or not? The 11-paragraph definition
[00:06:49] of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
[00:06:52] is a bit complicated. A simplified version is this: These
[00:06:56] foods usually undergo a processing procedure that cannot
[00:06:59] be done in a normal kitchen. Or they usually have plastic
[00:07:03] packaging and a long shelf life. Or
[00:07:07] if the name of one of its ingredients is unfamiliar to you,
[00:07:09] or it's on that list of ingredients that cannot
[00:07:13] be bought at regular supermarkets, whether it's
[00:07:17] preservatives or flavorings,
[00:07:20] or emulsifiers, or stabilizers.
[00:07:22] But what
[00:07:26] effect can these processed foods have on health? These
[00:07:30] ingredients harm us in various ways. Some, like
[00:07:34] coloring agents, flavorings, and other additives, affect
[00:07:37] the brain. Some are harmful
[00:07:41] to the beneficial bacteria in the body.
[00:07:44] Some also feed harmful bacteria
[00:07:48] in the body. Additives that cause
[00:07:51] the raw materials of food to stick together cause
[00:07:55] inflammation in the body, especially in the intestines.
[00:07:58] These are the physical and visible damages resulting
[00:08:02] from ultra-processed foods. The foods themselves,
[00:08:05] although they do not contain addictive substances,
[00:08:08] act like an addictive substance, meaning
[00:08:11] they affect the same parts of the brain
[00:08:15] as opium, alcohol, and cocaine.
[00:08:18] So, quitting chocolate and chips is as
[00:08:21] difficult for someone addicted to them as quitting
[00:08:25] cigarettes is for a smoker.
[00:08:28] At the same time, we know that these foods are also very harmful
[00:08:31] to the planet. These are the
[00:08:34] second biggest contributor to carbon emissions and the first
[00:08:38] cause of biodiversity loss. Can you tell us about the
[00:08:41] experiment you conducted
[00:08:44] on yourself, how it went, and for how many days you followed the
[00:08:46] diet?
[00:08:48] I was supposed to follow the same diet that
[00:08:52] one in five people in Britain, America, and
[00:08:56] Australia have. Meaning, 80% of what I
[00:08:59] ate should be ultra-processed foods. I wasn't supposed to
[00:09:03] force myself to keep eating. I just had to make sure that whenever I wanted
[00:09:07] more, my calorie intake came from ultra-processed
[00:09:11] foods. How long did you follow this diet?
[00:09:15] I was about a month. Tell us about the results.
[00:09:18] My weight increased so much that if I had continued that diet for a year,
[00:09:21] my weight would have doubled. My insulin hormones
[00:09:25] hadn't changed much. But
[00:09:29] what did change were the hormones that tell
[00:09:32] us when we're full. The human body, like
[00:09:35] all animal bodies, when it eats enough food, has a
[00:09:38] way to tell us, "That's enough, I can't eat any
[00:09:42] more." This system works very well with foods that are not
[00:09:45] ultra-processed. It responds. Even historically,
[00:09:49] during periods when people had an abundance of food,
[00:09:52] the percentage of obesity was very low,
[00:09:56] perhaps a maximum of one or two percent
[00:09:58] of the population. But now, in Britain, two-thirds
[00:10:01] of the people are overweight. Morbid obesity
[00:10:05] is the number one cause of premature
[00:10:08] death, and its sole cause
[00:10:11] is ultra-processed foods. So, that's its
[00:10:15] effect on satiety hormones. What effect did it have on your brain?
[00:10:19] Contrary to my and my neuroscientist
[00:10:22] colleagues' expectations, an MRI showed
[00:10:25] significant changes in the connections in my brain.
[00:10:28] In two parts of my brain, the part that deals
[00:10:31] with the reward system and the part that performs
[00:10:35] automatic tasks, just by eating these foods
[00:10:39] for one month. The main worrying point
[00:10:41] is that two months after this experiment, I had another scan
[00:10:44] and saw that those changes in my brain
[00:10:48] remained. If I had eaten these ultra-processed foods
[00:10:52] for a longer period, my brain structure
[00:10:55] would have also changed. At that time, I think I was
[00:10:59] 43 years old, meaning at an age where my brain is more or less in a stable
[00:11:03] state. Now, imagine what these foods do to the brains of children
[00:11:06] who might have been exposed to ultra-processed foods
[00:11:10] since birth? They are actually experimenting
[00:11:13] on us globally without having asked
[00:11:17] for our permission, and in the end, only the pockets
[00:11:20] of the producers of these foods get filled.
[00:11:24] It's not a very heroic thing
[00:11:47] to do. In this country, one out of every five people
[00:11:50] follows this diet, not just for 7 days,
[00:11:53] but 365 days a year.
[00:11:57] To see how these ultra-processed foods affect
[00:12:00] my gut health, I'm taking a stool culture test once before
[00:12:03] and once after the experiment. I'll mail the stool sample to the lab
[00:12:07] to see what effect it has on my gut health.
[00:12:11] Day one of
[00:12:12] the experiment.
[00:12:15] I start with one of the most popular foods here:
[00:12:18] a McDonald's hamburger. I love
[00:12:22] my job, so I can eat whatever I want for a week, with no
[00:12:26] guilt.
[00:12:31] It's so soft. The texture
[00:12:34] almost doesn't require chewing. You eat the whole
[00:12:38] hamburger in less than 3 minutes, and you want to order
[00:12:41] a second one. It's that delicious.
[00:12:55] This love for lasagna will eventually kill me. The only thing I don't
[00:12:59] want to think about when eating lasagna is the xanthan
[00:13:02] gum and maltodextrin in it, these
[00:13:06] chemicals they add to it.
[00:13:07] Day two
[00:13:14] of the experiment. I woke up with a very bad
[00:13:18] headache and stomachache. I, who
[00:13:21] always used to be very enthusiastic about breakfast.
[00:13:47] It's very
[00:13:47] painful.
[00:13:51] This is the thirteenth chicken nugget I'm eating. These.
[00:13:57] Have no taste. The chicken
[00:14:00] texture, you can't even feel it. It's so soft.
[00:14:03] It doesn't even give you time to chew your
[00:14:06] chicken bite. Now, even after eating
[00:14:10] these, I don't feel full at all.
[00:14:12] I recognize some of the first
[00:14:15] ones: chicken breast, wheat flour, pea
[00:14:19] starch fiber, soy protein
[00:14:23] extract.
[00:14:41] I'll endure until the end of the 7 days of this experiment.
[00:14:43] God bless you, I've been constipated for
[00:14:47] 4 days.
[00:14:51] In just this one week, I gained two and a half
[00:14:55] kilos. I knew I would gain weight after this
[00:14:59] one-week diet, but two and a half kilos, I never would have
[00:15:02] thought. And I wish the only consequence of the experiment
[00:15:06] was weight gain. Dr. Jafari, a gastroenterologist at
[00:15:10] Guy's Hospital in London, doesn't have good news for me.
[00:15:13] Dr. Jafari, what have I done to myself?
[00:15:16] Let's look at your test results.
[00:15:20] After just one week, your immunity against
[00:15:24] ulcerative colitis was not very good.
[00:15:26] You had 50% immunity with the help of
[00:15:29] the bacteria in your large intestine. But after just
[00:15:33] one week of consuming ultra-processed foods, your immunity
[00:15:37] is now 4%, meaning it has decreased by 10%. Your immunity
[00:15:40] against morbid obesity was relatively
[00:15:43] good. You had 70% immunity against becoming morbidly
[00:15:46] obese due to the help of those bacteria, but now you
[00:15:50] have 50% immunity, meaning in just one week, your immunity
[00:15:54] has decreased by 20%, meaning your chance of gaining weight
[00:15:57] has increased by 20%. That's a very
[00:15:59] good question.
[00:16:02] This 20% increase in your chance of gaining
[00:16:06] weight is only the part where
[00:16:08] the bacteria no longer help you. But by eating those
[00:16:12] ultra-processed foods,
[00:16:15] your chance of obesity increases several times over,
[00:16:19] because those foods contain a lot of sugar
[00:16:22] and also a lot of salt.
[00:16:25] These themselves increase your weight and have nothing to do with
[00:16:28] bacteria. Also, since these foods are easy to consume,
[00:16:32] a person might eat more. They can be consumed at work,
[00:16:36] at school, at home, everywhere. As a result,
[00:16:40] a person eats more. When we don't eat
[00:16:43] processed foods and consume more
[00:16:47] natural foods, our brain has the
[00:16:51] opportunity to assess whether we have eaten enough,
[00:16:54] and then it tells us, it tells our body to stop
[00:16:58] eating. We feel full. But by eating these types
[00:17:01] of foods, because they are absorbed very
[00:17:04] quickly, it's as if a large part of their digestion
[00:17:08] has already happened outside our body. As a
[00:17:10] result, the brain doesn't have the chance to send the message that
[00:17:14] it's enough, don't eat anymore. A person can overeat. Just because of these
[00:17:17] bacteria, yes, your chance of obesity is 20% higher, but
[00:17:21] there are other reasons that add to that percentage.
[00:17:24] Exactly, in this slide, you see that your ability
[00:17:28] to resist inflammatory diseases
[00:17:31] has decreased by 30% overall. Previously, with the diet
[00:17:35] you had, these bacteria helped you 80%
[00:17:38] to withstand these diseases,
[00:17:41] but now you only have 50%
[00:17:45] resistance, meaning in one week, 30% of this
[00:17:49] ability, the help of microbes to your
[00:17:52] body, has decreased. Dr. Jafari, the results are very
[00:17:56] frightening. Were they surprising to you, or did you
[00:18:00] expect them? Honestly, when you first talked
[00:18:03] about this experiment, I was very skeptical
[00:18:08] that you could see results in just one week, because
[00:18:12] gut bacteria take at least four weeks
[00:18:15] to completely change and turn into a new
[00:18:19] population. After that, it takes months for
[00:18:22] the bad effects of these to appear in the body.
[00:18:25] It was very strange to me that in just one
[00:18:28] week, I saw so many changes in
[00:18:31] your body's immunity. When we see a
[00:18:34] 20% change in one week, it doesn't mean that
[00:18:38] you can see a 40% change in two weeks, because
[00:18:42] bacteria are doubling. In fact,
[00:18:46] in mathematics, they say that bacteria increase
[00:18:50] parabolically, meaning they don't double,
[00:18:52] they quadruple, then octuple. It can
[00:18:56] go up exponentially, yes, exponentially. And this causes
[00:19:00] the effect of this diet to be several
[00:19:04] times greater for you in just four weeks, and then
[00:19:07] for months after that. Dr. Jafari, are these results reversible? Can
[00:19:11] I return to my original state?
[00:19:15] Yes and no. It depends
[00:19:18] on how long you have been consuming this type of food.
[00:19:22] For you, most likely,
[00:19:26] after two to three weeks,
[00:19:30] your bacterial
[00:19:33] population will return to its normal state if you consume
[00:19:36] healthier foods. But if someone has consumed
[00:19:40] this type of food for years, months or years,
[00:19:43] and has become morbidly obese,
[00:19:47] it's very difficult for them to go back. If
[00:19:50] someone has suffered knee damage because they were very
[00:19:54] obese, that won't ever revert. If someone has developed cancer
[00:19:58] because of these changes, it won't
[00:20:00] revert. So, the sooner
[00:20:04] you change your diet, the greater the chance
[00:20:08] of avoiding the consequences of this bad
[00:20:11] diet. What advice do you have for viewers regarding
[00:20:14] the consumption of ultra-processed foods? Naturally, the advice
[00:20:18] would be to use
[00:20:21] less processed foods. These are foods
[00:20:25] to which dozens of artificial ingredients are added
[00:20:28] so they don't spoil on the shelf, and
[00:20:32] so their color is appealing. If you look at bottles
[00:20:36] of apple juice, they all look the same, their color is the same. This
[00:20:39] is impossible in nature, because every apple's
[00:20:43] juice color is different from the next. How is it possible that
[00:20:47] thousands of bottles are all the same color? These have
[00:20:50] a lot of additives added to them. For every
[00:20:54] 10% that a person's daily
[00:20:57] food comes from ultra-processed foods,
[00:21:01] their chance of developing
[00:21:04] diabetes increases by 15%. Their chance of obesity
[00:21:08] increases by approximately 10 to 15%. Their chance of developing
[00:21:12] cancers increases by approximately 8%.
[00:21:16] Well, that's just for a 10%
[00:21:19] change. If someone dedicates
[00:21:23] 80% of their daily food to these ultra-processed
[00:21:26] foods, well, you can calculate
[00:21:30] how severe the consequences will be.
[00:21:32] Critics say we always
[00:21:36] knew that foods high in fat, sugar, and
[00:21:39] salt are harmful. Well, many
[00:21:42] ultra-processed foods are also fatty, sweet, and salty. What's
[00:21:46] your answer? Two points.
[00:21:53] Experience tells us that all traditional foods we have
[00:21:56] examined are good for our health in a balanced
[00:22:00] diet. Whether you go to Japan or Central Asia,
[00:22:03] or the Middle East or Europe. It seems the foods
[00:22:06] our ancestors consumed were healthy. These
[00:22:10] foods are also very different from each other.
[00:22:13] Meaning, some foods in the Arctic
[00:22:17] were entirely made of fat and protein. Others also had a lot of carbohydrates.
[00:22:20] It seems all these traditional foods made
[00:22:24] our ancestors live longer. Meaning, in
[00:22:27] different parts of the world for centuries, and in some places
[00:22:31] for thousands of years, we had a lot of fat, sugar, and salt
[00:22:35] in our food, and these did not have
[00:22:38] a bad effect. But the scientific argument
[00:22:41] is much more important. Epidemiological studies have shown that a fatty, salty,
[00:22:45] or sugary food that is cooked at home
[00:22:49] is not as harmful as an ultra-processed food
[00:22:52] that has the same amount of fat, sugar, and salt.
[00:22:55] But how can this
[00:22:58] statement be proven? To verify this,
[00:23:02] five years ago, in a clinical trial, Dr. Hall and
[00:23:05] his colleagues designed two groups of food. In
[00:23:09] both groups, the amount of fat, salt, sugar,
[00:23:12] and fiber was the same. But the foods in group
[00:23:16] one were all from the first group, meaning minimally processed foods.
[00:23:20] And 80% of the foods in the other
[00:23:23] group were from the fourth group, meaning ultra-processed
[00:23:27] foods.
[00:23:29] Surprisingly, we saw that the second group, who ate ultra-processed food,
[00:23:33] consumed an average of 500 more calories
[00:23:36] daily. In two weeks, their weight increased by more than
[00:23:40] one kilo. They also finished their food much faster, 30%
[00:23:43] slower than the first group. One hypothesis is that because ultra-processed
[00:23:47] foods are soft, they are digested faster.
[00:23:52] That's why the message reaches the brain late that enough
[00:23:55] calories have been consumed. But we need more research
[00:23:59] in this area.
[00:23:59] Let's be careful that
[00:24:05] a small number of these ultra-processed foods are healthier
[00:24:09] than others. Those
[00:24:11] experts who believe that we shouldn't blame all ultra-processed
[00:24:15] foods say that this view will make people stop eating
[00:24:19] relatively healthier products from this group.
[00:24:22] Generally, in the West, ultra-processed foods are much cheaper
[00:24:26] than healthy foods.
[00:24:29] For example, factory-made whole-wheat toast bread
[00:24:32] packaged in plastic is three to four times
[00:24:36] cheaper than bread baked in a bakery and minimally processed,
[00:24:40] and the lower-income segment of society tends
[00:24:43] to buy those. The concern of these experts
[00:24:47] is that for the poorer segment, eliminating
[00:24:51] industrial brown toast bread does not necessarily mean choosing healthier
[00:24:55] foods. Like many of you, I'm tired of
[00:24:59] advice like "don't eat that or you'll get such-and-such a disease."
[00:25:02] But this "don't do that or you'll die" was really different.
[00:25:06] The results of my experiment were very shocking
[00:25:09] to me. I decided to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed
[00:25:13] foods to zero, which is not possible, but as much as possible.
[00:25:16] I don't know if you'll make a similar decision
[00:25:20] or not, but at least it won't
[00:27:37] car for a generation of Iranians. Once upon a time,
[00:27:41] the streets and roads of Iran were full of all kinds of light
[00:27:44] and cheap Citroëns. The assembly line of Citroën
[00:27:48] in Iran closed after the revolution, and gradually that
[00:27:51] generation of cars disappeared from the streets and alleys. But now,
[00:27:55] Citroën, the same company that manufactured the Citroën, has unveiled
[00:27:58] its new electric model. The officials of this French company say
[00:28:02] it was designed with inspiration from the legendary 2CV model
[00:28:06] of this brand. The new Citroën is designed with red
[00:28:09] and yellow seats. In a situation where competition with Asian car manufacturers
[00:28:13] in the European market has intensified, Citroën France is now launching
[00:28:17] an affordable car that is expected to
[00:28:20] cost less than 15,000 Euros. Caroline
[00:28:24] Malouis, Citroën's product strategy director, says
[00:28:27] the goal of redesigning this model is not just to revive old
[00:28:31] memories, but to make buying electric cars
[00:28:34] easier for people. This was very important
[00:28:38] to us from the very beginning. This car is 100%
[00:28:41] electric and made in Europe. When the old Citroën
[00:28:45] first entered the market, it was meant to be a practical car
[00:28:49] for ordinary people. A car that, for example, farmers could use to
[00:28:52] transport four people and 50 kilos of potatoes
[00:28:56] without having to worry about the car breaking down.
[00:29:00] The goal was to make car ownership and transportation easier
[00:29:03] for everyone. And now, we are pursuing the exact same goal.
[00:29:07] We hope that those who liked the old Citroën
[00:29:10] will also like this new,
[00:30:24] News headlines:
[00:30:27] Continued reactions in Iran to Trump's allies' defeat in
[00:30:31] the congressional elections, from burning the U.S. President's
[00:30:34] poster to advising his aides to prevent another attack.
[00:30:38] Consultations by the Israeli
[00:30:41] president to determine the new prime minister. According to
[00:30:44] predictions, Eisenkot has a higher chance than Netanyahu.
[00:30:48] U.S. Federal Court approves
[00:30:52] continuation of proceedings in Parviz Sabeti's case,
[00:30:55] a former official.