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00:00:15Hello, I'm Nazanin Motamedi, and in this episode of 37 Degrees, I'm going to tell you about
00:00:18ultra-processed foods. I'll show you what kind of
00:00:22damage these foods do to the body by conducting an experiment on myself, and
00:00:25why we can't stop eating them. Also, later in this
00:00:29program, I'll reveal what only
00:00:337 days of eating these foods did to my weight and
00:00:37the likelihood of developing cancer. Your immunity
00:00:41against morbid obesity decreased by 20% in just one
00:00:44week.
00:00:45How do these foods cause
00:00:48more than half the population to
00:00:51become overweight or morbidly obese?
00:00:54King's College London
00:00:57has conducted extensive research in recent years on the effect of
00:01:01ultra-processed foods on health, some of which
00:01:04seem like healthy foods, such as low-fat yogurt and pre-sliced
00:01:08bread. But the initial results of their research
00:01:12show that these types of foods are linked to an increased risk of
00:01:16various cancers, heart disease, stroke,
00:01:19and even dementia. I tried this diet
00:01:23for just one week to see what effect it would have on my health.
00:01:27The result: Many of us haven't
00:01:35even heard of it, but it has recently been proven that eating
00:01:38this group of foods is linked to an
00:01:41increased incidence of heart attack, stroke, some cancers,
00:01:45and even dementia. What are
00:01:48ultra-processed foods?
00:01:52What are these groups of foods?
00:01:56How did they so quickly make their way into household shopping baskets?
00:02:00Why can't we stop eating them? I didn't know anything about them
00:02:04until recently, but I thought, what better way to get to
00:02:07know them than to experiment on myself?
00:02:10But I wish I hadn't.
00:02:14I have severe stomach pain and
00:02:17a bad headache. But first,
00:02:21let's see what ultra-processed foods are. A group of
00:02:24experts, citing research conducted in the last two or three
00:02:27decades, believe that
00:02:31instead of identifying unhealthy foods by their salt,
00:02:35sugar, and fat content, we should categorize foods
00:02:38based on the degree of processing and industrial changes,
00:02:41chemical additives, etc.
00:02:44And for more explanation on this topic, who better than
00:02:48Dr. Panham, a specialist from Imperial College London,
00:02:51who has been working in this field for several years? Dr. Panham categorizes
00:02:55foods based on their processing into several
00:02:58groups. The first group is unprocessed or
00:03:02minimally processed foods. These are ingredients that have not been
00:03:06altered, and we receive them from nature in their original
00:03:10state. They are untouched. Sometimes they are only slightly processed
00:03:14to make them edible and harmless. For example,
00:03:17milk is pasteurized or pasta or rice is
00:03:21boiled to make it edible. We cook
00:03:25or fry meat to be able to eat it. But these are simple
00:03:28tasks that can be done at home.
00:03:46Oil can be made from olives, or butter is made from milk.
00:03:49Also, various spices, salt, and sugar are
00:03:53in this group. We usually add these ingredients to the
00:03:56first group of ingredients to enhance the flavor of our food
00:04:00and make them easier to eat.
00:04:03And these first two groups are harmless. Their consumption does not cause serious
00:04:07harm. These are used very widely.
00:04:11Of course, regarding butter and oil, we need to be mindful of
00:04:14their effect on our health, but we can easily
00:04:18incorporate them into a healthy and balanced
00:04:21diet. So, let's move on to the third group. This
00:04:25group consists of processed foods, such as the process involved in
00:04:29making cheese, or canned vegetables,
00:04:32or jam, and homemade bread. But the important point
00:04:36in this type of processing is that you can do this processing in
00:04:39your own kitchen, and it doesn't need to be produced in a
00:04:43factory. Very well, and the fourth group. These
00:04:47are ultra-processed foods that have been processed
00:04:51on an industrial scale. This means that a process has been applied to them
00:04:54that cannot be done in a normal kitchen, and in the
00:04:58list of ingredients.
00:05:12And made using only sourdough, flour, water,
00:05:16and salt. But most breads we see in
00:05:19supermarkets are ultra-processed. Because
00:05:22for their preparation, both industrial additives
00:05:26and preservatives have been added to prevent mold
00:05:30for longer. Until now, I thought some of these foods
00:05:34in this group were healthy, for example, low-fat yogurt, this bread,
00:05:37or breakfast cereals and cornflakes, but apparently not,
00:05:40right? This yogurt is a good example because it seems
00:05:44very healthy and its fat percentage is
00:05:47zero. But when you look at the ingredient
00:05:50list, you see it contains chemical additives that
00:05:54are not necessary in yogurt, including modified
00:05:58corn starch. The fat percentage of this yogurt is
00:06:02zero, but its taste is completely sweet. If
00:06:05factories remove fat, they often have to add
00:06:09something else instead to preserve
00:06:12the taste and texture. This is where they process the ingredient heavily
00:06:16and add a lot of artificial ingredients to it. Superficially,
00:06:20buying fruit yogurts seems like a good way to consume
00:06:24fruit. But we see fruits like apples and tomatoes
00:06:27used in fruit yogurts are so processed that they appear
00:06:31in a form where their very nature has changed,
00:06:34and what remains for you is just
00:06:38sugar, not fiber and essential minerals.
00:06:43But how do we know if a food is ultra-processed
00:06:46or not? The 11-paragraph definition
00:06:49of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
00:06:52is a bit complicated. A simplified version is this: These
00:06:56foods usually undergo a processing procedure that cannot
00:06:59be done in a normal kitchen. Or they usually have plastic
00:07:03packaging and a long shelf life. Or
00:07:07if the name of one of its ingredients is unfamiliar to you,
00:07:09or it's on that list of ingredients that cannot
00:07:13be bought at regular supermarkets, whether it's
00:07:17preservatives or flavorings,
00:07:20or emulsifiers, or stabilizers.
00:07:22But what
00:07:26effect can these processed foods have on health? These
00:07:30ingredients harm us in various ways. Some, like
00:07:34coloring agents, flavorings, and other additives, affect
00:07:37the brain. Some are harmful
00:07:41to the beneficial bacteria in the body.
00:07:44Some also feed harmful bacteria
00:07:48in the body. Additives that cause
00:07:51the raw materials of food to stick together cause
00:07:55inflammation in the body, especially in the intestines.
00:07:58These are the physical and visible damages resulting
00:08:02from ultra-processed foods. The foods themselves,
00:08:05although they do not contain addictive substances,
00:08:08act like an addictive substance, meaning
00:08:11they affect the same parts of the brain
00:08:15as opium, alcohol, and cocaine.
00:08:18So, quitting chocolate and chips is as
00:08:21difficult for someone addicted to them as quitting
00:08:25cigarettes is for a smoker.
00:08:28At the same time, we know that these foods are also very harmful
00:08:31to the planet. These are the
00:08:34second biggest contributor to carbon emissions and the first
00:08:38cause of biodiversity loss. Can you tell us about the
00:08:41experiment you conducted
00:08:44on yourself, how it went, and for how many days you followed the
00:08:46diet?
00:08:48I was supposed to follow the same diet that
00:08:52one in five people in Britain, America, and
00:08:56Australia have. Meaning, 80% of what I
00:08:59ate should be ultra-processed foods. I wasn't supposed to
00:09:03force myself to keep eating. I just had to make sure that whenever I wanted
00:09:07more, my calorie intake came from ultra-processed
00:09:11foods. How long did you follow this diet?
00:09:15I was about a month. Tell us about the results.
00:09:18My weight increased so much that if I had continued that diet for a year,
00:09:21my weight would have doubled. My insulin hormones
00:09:25hadn't changed much. But
00:09:29what did change were the hormones that tell
00:09:32us when we're full. The human body, like
00:09:35all animal bodies, when it eats enough food, has a
00:09:38way to tell us, "That's enough, I can't eat any
00:09:42more." This system works very well with foods that are not
00:09:45ultra-processed. It responds. Even historically,
00:09:49during periods when people had an abundance of food,
00:09:52the percentage of obesity was very low,
00:09:56perhaps a maximum of one or two percent
00:09:58of the population. But now, in Britain, two-thirds
00:10:01of the people are overweight. Morbid obesity
00:10:05is the number one cause of premature
00:10:08death, and its sole cause
00:10:11is ultra-processed foods. So, that's its
00:10:15effect on satiety hormones. What effect did it have on your brain?
00:10:19Contrary to my and my neuroscientist
00:10:22colleagues' expectations, an MRI showed
00:10:25significant changes in the connections in my brain.
00:10:28In two parts of my brain, the part that deals
00:10:31with the reward system and the part that performs
00:10:35automatic tasks, just by eating these foods
00:10:39for one month. The main worrying point
00:10:41is that two months after this experiment, I had another scan
00:10:44and saw that those changes in my brain
00:10:48remained. If I had eaten these ultra-processed foods
00:10:52for a longer period, my brain structure
00:10:55would have also changed. At that time, I think I was
00:10:5943 years old, meaning at an age where my brain is more or less in a stable
00:11:03state. Now, imagine what these foods do to the brains of children
00:11:06who might have been exposed to ultra-processed foods
00:11:10since birth? They are actually experimenting
00:11:13on us globally without having asked
00:11:17for our permission, and in the end, only the pockets
00:11:20of the producers of these foods get filled.
00:11:24It's not a very heroic thing
00:11:47to do. In this country, one out of every five people
00:11:50follows this diet, not just for 7 days,
00:11:53but 365 days a year.
00:11:57To see how these ultra-processed foods affect
00:12:00my gut health, I'm taking a stool culture test once before
00:12:03and once after the experiment. I'll mail the stool sample to the lab
00:12:07to see what effect it has on my gut health.
00:12:11Day one of
00:12:12the experiment.
00:12:15I start with one of the most popular foods here:
00:12:18a McDonald's hamburger. I love
00:12:22my job, so I can eat whatever I want for a week, with no
00:12:26guilt.
00:12:31It's so soft. The texture
00:12:34almost doesn't require chewing. You eat the whole
00:12:38hamburger in less than 3 minutes, and you want to order
00:12:41a second one. It's that delicious.
00:12:55This love for lasagna will eventually kill me. The only thing I don't
00:12:59want to think about when eating lasagna is the xanthan
00:13:02gum and maltodextrin in it, these
00:13:06chemicals they add to it.
00:13:07Day two
00:13:14of the experiment. I woke up with a very bad
00:13:18headache and stomachache. I, who
00:13:21always used to be very enthusiastic about breakfast.
00:13:47It's very
00:13:47painful.
00:13:51This is the thirteenth chicken nugget I'm eating. These.
00:13:57Have no taste. The chicken
00:14:00texture, you can't even feel it. It's so soft.
00:14:03It doesn't even give you time to chew your
00:14:06chicken bite. Now, even after eating
00:14:10these, I don't feel full at all.
00:14:12I recognize some of the first
00:14:15ones: chicken breast, wheat flour, pea
00:14:19starch fiber, soy protein
00:14:23extract.
00:14:41I'll endure until the end of the 7 days of this experiment.
00:14:43God bless you, I've been constipated for
00:14:474 days.
00:14:51In just this one week, I gained two and a half
00:14:55kilos. I knew I would gain weight after this
00:14:59one-week diet, but two and a half kilos, I never would have
00:15:02thought. And I wish the only consequence of the experiment
00:15:06was weight gain. Dr. Jafari, a gastroenterologist at
00:15:10Guy's Hospital in London, doesn't have good news for me.
00:15:13Dr. Jafari, what have I done to myself?
00:15:16Let's look at your test results.
00:15:20After just one week, your immunity against
00:15:24ulcerative colitis was not very good.
00:15:26You had 50% immunity with the help of
00:15:29the bacteria in your large intestine. But after just
00:15:33one week of consuming ultra-processed foods, your immunity
00:15:37is now 4%, meaning it has decreased by 10%. Your immunity
00:15:40against morbid obesity was relatively
00:15:43good. You had 70% immunity against becoming morbidly
00:15:46obese due to the help of those bacteria, but now you
00:15:50have 50% immunity, meaning in just one week, your immunity
00:15:54has decreased by 20%, meaning your chance of gaining weight
00:15:57has increased by 20%. That's a very
00:15:59good question.
00:16:02This 20% increase in your chance of gaining
00:16:06weight is only the part where
00:16:08the bacteria no longer help you. But by eating those
00:16:12ultra-processed foods,
00:16:15your chance of obesity increases several times over,
00:16:19because those foods contain a lot of sugar
00:16:22and also a lot of salt.
00:16:25These themselves increase your weight and have nothing to do with
00:16:28bacteria. Also, since these foods are easy to consume,
00:16:32a person might eat more. They can be consumed at work,
00:16:36at school, at home, everywhere. As a result,
00:16:40a person eats more. When we don't eat
00:16:43processed foods and consume more
00:16:47natural foods, our brain has the
00:16:51opportunity to assess whether we have eaten enough,
00:16:54and then it tells us, it tells our body to stop
00:16:58eating. We feel full. But by eating these types
00:17:01of foods, because they are absorbed very
00:17:04quickly, it's as if a large part of their digestion
00:17:08has already happened outside our body. As a
00:17:10result, the brain doesn't have the chance to send the message that
00:17:14it's enough, don't eat anymore. A person can overeat. Just because of these
00:17:17bacteria, yes, your chance of obesity is 20% higher, but
00:17:21there are other reasons that add to that percentage.
00:17:24Exactly, in this slide, you see that your ability
00:17:28to resist inflammatory diseases
00:17:31has decreased by 30% overall. Previously, with the diet
00:17:35you had, these bacteria helped you 80%
00:17:38to withstand these diseases,
00:17:41but now you only have 50%
00:17:45resistance, meaning in one week, 30% of this
00:17:49ability, the help of microbes to your
00:17:52body, has decreased. Dr. Jafari, the results are very
00:17:56frightening. Were they surprising to you, or did you
00:18:00expect them? Honestly, when you first talked
00:18:03about this experiment, I was very skeptical
00:18:08that you could see results in just one week, because
00:18:12gut bacteria take at least four weeks
00:18:15to completely change and turn into a new
00:18:19population. After that, it takes months for
00:18:22the bad effects of these to appear in the body.
00:18:25It was very strange to me that in just one
00:18:28week, I saw so many changes in
00:18:31your body's immunity. When we see a
00:18:3420% change in one week, it doesn't mean that
00:18:38you can see a 40% change in two weeks, because
00:18:42bacteria are doubling. In fact,
00:18:46in mathematics, they say that bacteria increase
00:18:50parabolically, meaning they don't double,
00:18:52they quadruple, then octuple. It can
00:18:56go up exponentially, yes, exponentially. And this causes
00:19:00the effect of this diet to be several
00:19:04times greater for you in just four weeks, and then
00:19:07for months after that. Dr. Jafari, are these results reversible? Can
00:19:11I return to my original state?
00:19:15Yes and no. It depends
00:19:18on how long you have been consuming this type of food.
00:19:22For you, most likely,
00:19:26after two to three weeks,
00:19:30your bacterial
00:19:33population will return to its normal state if you consume
00:19:36healthier foods. But if someone has consumed
00:19:40this type of food for years, months or years,
00:19:43and has become morbidly obese,
00:19:47it's very difficult for them to go back. If
00:19:50someone has suffered knee damage because they were very
00:19:54obese, that won't ever revert. If someone has developed cancer
00:19:58because of these changes, it won't
00:20:00revert. So, the sooner
00:20:04you change your diet, the greater the chance
00:20:08of avoiding the consequences of this bad
00:20:11diet. What advice do you have for viewers regarding
00:20:14the consumption of ultra-processed foods? Naturally, the advice
00:20:18would be to use
00:20:21less processed foods. These are foods
00:20:25to which dozens of artificial ingredients are added
00:20:28so they don't spoil on the shelf, and
00:20:32so their color is appealing. If you look at bottles
00:20:36of apple juice, they all look the same, their color is the same. This
00:20:39is impossible in nature, because every apple's
00:20:43juice color is different from the next. How is it possible that
00:20:47thousands of bottles are all the same color? These have
00:20:50a lot of additives added to them. For every
00:20:5410% that a person's daily
00:20:57food comes from ultra-processed foods,
00:21:01their chance of developing
00:21:04diabetes increases by 15%. Their chance of obesity
00:21:08increases by approximately 10 to 15%. Their chance of developing
00:21:12cancers increases by approximately 8%.
00:21:16Well, that's just for a 10%
00:21:19change. If someone dedicates
00:21:2380% of their daily food to these ultra-processed
00:21:26foods, well, you can calculate
00:21:30how severe the consequences will be.
00:21:32Critics say we always
00:21:36knew that foods high in fat, sugar, and
00:21:39salt are harmful. Well, many
00:21:42ultra-processed foods are also fatty, sweet, and salty. What's
00:21:46your answer? Two points.
00:21:53Experience tells us that all traditional foods we have
00:21:56examined are good for our health in a balanced
00:22:00diet. Whether you go to Japan or Central Asia,
00:22:03or the Middle East or Europe. It seems the foods
00:22:06our ancestors consumed were healthy. These
00:22:10foods are also very different from each other.
00:22:13Meaning, some foods in the Arctic
00:22:17were entirely made of fat and protein. Others also had a lot of carbohydrates.
00:22:20It seems all these traditional foods made
00:22:24our ancestors live longer. Meaning, in
00:22:27different parts of the world for centuries, and in some places
00:22:31for thousands of years, we had a lot of fat, sugar, and salt
00:22:35in our food, and these did not have
00:22:38a bad effect. But the scientific argument
00:22:41is much more important. Epidemiological studies have shown that a fatty, salty,
00:22:45or sugary food that is cooked at home
00:22:49is not as harmful as an ultra-processed food
00:22:52that has the same amount of fat, sugar, and salt.
00:22:55But how can this
00:22:58statement be proven? To verify this,
00:23:02five years ago, in a clinical trial, Dr. Hall and
00:23:05his colleagues designed two groups of food. In
00:23:09both groups, the amount of fat, salt, sugar,
00:23:12and fiber was the same. But the foods in group
00:23:16one were all from the first group, meaning minimally processed foods.
00:23:20And 80% of the foods in the other
00:23:23group were from the fourth group, meaning ultra-processed
00:23:27foods.
00:23:29Surprisingly, we saw that the second group, who ate ultra-processed food,
00:23:33consumed an average of 500 more calories
00:23:36daily. In two weeks, their weight increased by more than
00:23:40one kilo. They also finished their food much faster, 30%
00:23:43slower than the first group. One hypothesis is that because ultra-processed
00:23:47foods are soft, they are digested faster.
00:23:52That's why the message reaches the brain late that enough
00:23:55calories have been consumed. But we need more research
00:23:59in this area.
00:23:59Let's be careful that
00:24:05a small number of these ultra-processed foods are healthier
00:24:09than others. Those
00:24:11experts who believe that we shouldn't blame all ultra-processed
00:24:15foods say that this view will make people stop eating
00:24:19relatively healthier products from this group.
00:24:22Generally, in the West, ultra-processed foods are much cheaper
00:24:26than healthy foods.
00:24:29For example, factory-made whole-wheat toast bread
00:24:32packaged in plastic is three to four times
00:24:36cheaper than bread baked in a bakery and minimally processed,
00:24:40and the lower-income segment of society tends
00:24:43to buy those. The concern of these experts
00:24:47is that for the poorer segment, eliminating
00:24:51industrial brown toast bread does not necessarily mean choosing healthier
00:24:55foods. Like many of you, I'm tired of
00:24:59advice like "don't eat that or you'll get such-and-such a disease."
00:25:02But this "don't do that or you'll die" was really different.
00:25:06The results of my experiment were very shocking
00:25:09to me. I decided to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed
00:25:13foods to zero, which is not possible, but as much as possible.
00:25:16I don't know if you'll make a similar decision
00:25:20or not, but at least it won't
00:27:37car for a generation of Iranians. Once upon a time,
00:27:41the streets and roads of Iran were full of all kinds of light
00:27:44and cheap Citroëns. The assembly line of Citroën
00:27:48in Iran closed after the revolution, and gradually that
00:27:51generation of cars disappeared from the streets and alleys. But now,
00:27:55Citroën, the same company that manufactured the Citroën, has unveiled
00:27:58its new electric model. The officials of this French company say
00:28:02it was designed with inspiration from the legendary 2CV model
00:28:06of this brand. The new Citroën is designed with red
00:28:09and yellow seats. In a situation where competition with Asian car manufacturers
00:28:13in the European market has intensified, Citroën France is now launching
00:28:17an affordable car that is expected to
00:28:20cost less than 15,000 Euros. Caroline
00:28:24Malouis, Citroën's product strategy director, says
00:28:27the goal of redesigning this model is not just to revive old
00:28:31memories, but to make buying electric cars
00:28:34easier for people. This was very important
00:28:38to us from the very beginning. This car is 100%
00:28:41electric and made in Europe. When the old Citroën
00:28:45first entered the market, it was meant to be a practical car
00:28:49for ordinary people. A car that, for example, farmers could use to
00:28:52transport four people and 50 kilos of potatoes
00:28:56without having to worry about the car breaking down.
00:29:00The goal was to make car ownership and transportation easier
00:29:03for everyone. And now, we are pursuing the exact same goal.
00:29:07We hope that those who liked the old Citroën
00:29:10will also like this new,
00:30:24News headlines:
00:30:27Continued reactions in Iran to Trump's allies' defeat in
00:30:31the congressional elections, from burning the U.S. President's
00:30:34poster to advising his aides to prevent another attack.
00:30:38Consultations by the Israeli
00:30:41president to determine the new prime minister. According to
00:30:44predictions, Eisenkot has a higher chance than Netanyahu.
00:30:48U.S. Federal Court approves
00:30:52continuation of proceedings in Parviz Sabeti's case,
00:30:55a former official.