Verifiable, organized research & references on processed foods and their health impacts. Clear insights to support and inspire client work, coaching, education. Summaries + more than 350 references.
Cut through the noise on one of the most important subjects of our time. Get straight to key insights, plus access more than 350 curated references — organized for fast access and AI-assisted use.
Contents
Introduction
The Bottom Line
Context: Corrupted & Severely Harmful Food System
Processed Foods Terminology
Foundational Facts
Research Summaries: Harm, Disease, Death
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Introduction
Few areas are as complex and chaotic as food and health. It’s one of the most important subjects of our lives, yet the information landscape is overwhelming. There is an overabundance of strong opinions, exaggeration, business agendas, propaganda, and corrupt forces. And mixed within it is genuinely valuable knowledge and a wealth of meaningful research that improves people’s lives. Discernment is essential.
For practitioners, staying current means working within this complexity and noise while staying committed to delivering clear, effective guidance that leads to tangible outcomes in the real world.
Our goal is to help you cut through the noise so you can focus on what matters most: supporting people effectively, without needing to spend excessive time sorting through the chaos. Our priorities are to:
Provide clear evidence drawn from a wide range of sources.
Build a solid foundation of facts and present information within context to support practical, informed decision-making.
Make facts easily verifiable and organized so you can quickly access what you need, when you need it
Distill research into practical, usable insights.
Curate resource lists by subject and date for efficient study, and AI-assisted use.
The Bottom Line
A foundational root cause of disease is toxins in air, soil, food, and water. These poisons are verifiably harmful to our immune system and cellular functioning.
The low-hanging fruit and risk-free strategy for improving health is reducing exposure to toxins.
Ultra-processed foods contain toxins, and decades of research show they increase death and disease. (Evidence below.)
Thus, the bottom line: Reducing intake of ultra-processed foods is an eminently practical strategy for improving health.
Context: Corrupted & Severely Harmful Food System
In this post, you’ll find key facts about ultra-processed foods, drawn from #2 below, within this broader context:
Corrupt System Protects Industry, Harms People — The organizations entrusted to serve humanity have served industry instead, allowing it to dominate the food system with unnatural food products that cause serious health issues, chronic disease, anxiety and depression, suicidal thoughts in children, and death.
UPFs, Fake Foods — Processed foods, junk food, fake food, fast food, energy drinks, and diet drinks have led to devastating outcomes in physical and mental health.
Seed Oils, Vegetable Oils, LA, PUFAs — Industrial seed oils (often labeled “vegetable oils”) are a major component of the food industry. Replacing natural fats with these manufactured concoctions was never proven to lower the risk of heart disease or death. In fact, it showed the opposite. And now we know seed oils cause chronic disease.
Pesticides, Dyes, Forever Chemicals, etc. — The industrialized food system is characterized by toxic contamination, including phthalates, microplastics, heavy metals, glyphosate and other pesticides, synthetic dyes, and hundreds of additional chemicals including “forever chemicals” and other endocrine-disruptors.
Apeel — Apeel is a chemical formulation that may be put on organics and cannot be washed off. It has mono- and diglycerides, which cause inflammation, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and hardening of arteries.
Industrial Agriculture, “Big Ag”, Factory Farming — Mechanization of agriculture has increased the use of poisons, and devastated the health of food and communities. Industrial agriculture is at the root of many of humanity’s crises. Factory farms are continuing to get bigger and bigger.
Genetically Engineered / GMO “Foods” — Genetic modification is the alteration of an organism’s genome. GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are often used by industrial agriculture to create “frankenfoods” that will survive the use of toxic pesticides that devastate human health, soils, and biodiversity.
Solutions — Solutions to the problems created by a corrupted food system include: 1) Reclaiming food sovereignty, de-centralizing systems, 2) Developing localized food networks, 3) Healing soil, 4) Supporting regenerative farming, and 5) Rewilding dead, dying, and imbalanced spaces.
Processed Foods Terminology
FILLER (in food) — A type of food additive (and therefore not normally consumed as a food); an ingredient that serves to add bulk or weight to the end product
FOOD ADDITIVE — “Any substance not normally consumed as a food in itself and not normally used as a characteristic ingredient of food”; its serves “a technological purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packaging, transport, or storage of” foods [source]
PRESERVED FOOD — A whole food that has undergone minimal and safe procedures to make it capable of being stored, such as in the traditional techniques of canning and pickling [source]
PROCESSED FOOD — While this term may refer to preserved foods, it typically refers to ultra-processed foods (UPFs)
ULTRA-PROCESSED FOOD (UPF) / NOVA GROUP 4 — Food and drink products that “are industrially manufactured ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat formulations containing food additives and little or no whole foods” [source]; group 4 in the NOVA food classification system explained here
WHOLE FOOD / UNPROCESSED FOOD — Food for humans and animals provided by Nature
“Food additives are substances not normally consumed as a food”
Food additives are substances primarily added to processed foods, or other foods produced on an industrial scale, for technical purposes… Food additives are substances not normally consumed as a food by themselves and not normally used as typical ingredients in foods. Most minimally processed and unprocessed foods do not contain food additives.
Foundational Facts
Real Food is Whole Food, Provided by Nature
Food for humans and animals is provided by Nature and has come to be called “whole” or “unprocessed” food.
For generations, these foods have been preserved using traditional methods such as canning, fermenting, and pickling.
The Food System Creates Products that Serve Industry, Not People
Industrially manufactured food and drink products are categorized as ultra-processed foods (UPFs).
These are ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat formulations made largely from refined ingredients, with additives and little or no whole foods.
Food additives are not normally consumed as food, but are nonetheless added to serve “a technological purpose” in the manufacture, processing, packaging, transport, or storage of UPFs. [Science Direct]
UPFs are “As Addictive as Alcohol and Tobacco, Especially in Children”
“Chemically engineered products provoke overeating and addiction.” [U.S. Right to Know and The Epoch Times]
UPFs, Junk Food, Fast Food, and Energy & Diet Drinks Harm on a Massive Scale
A voluminous body of research spanning decades has examined the relationship between UPFs, junk food, fake food, fast food, energy drinks, and diet drinks, demonstrating their devastating effects on physical and mental health.
More than 350 references provided here. Excerpts below.
Manufactured, Ready-to-Eat or Ready-to-Heat Formulations; Industrially Manufactured Foods Have Additives, Contaminants, and a Highly Degraded Structure
Ultra-processed foods are industrially manufactured ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat formulations containing food additives and little or no whole foods, in contrast to processed foods, which are whole foods preserved by traditional techniques such as canning or pickling…. Processing induces significant changes to the food matrix, for which ultra-processed foods may affect health outcomes differently than unrefined whole foods with similar nutritional composition. Notably, the highly degraded physical structure of ultra-processed foods may affect cardiometabolic health… and the gut microbiota composition and function. Food additives and… contaminants produced during processing may also play a role in risk of cardiovascular disease. Key biological pathways include altered serum lipid concentrations, modified gut microbiota and host–microbiota interactions, obesity, inflammation, oxidative stress, dysglycemia, insulin resistance, and hypertension.
Filippa Juul et al, Advances in Nutrition Sep 2021
Detail on the Composition & Processing of Ultra-Processed Foods
Ultra-processed food and drink products… are industrial formulations typically with five or more and usually many ingredients... Ingredients only found in ultra-processed products include substances not commonly used in culinary preparations, and additives whose purpose is to imitate sensory qualities of [unprocessed] foods… or to disguise undesirable sensory qualities of the final product. [Unprocessed] foods are a small proportion of or are even absent from ultra-processed products… Several industrial processes with no domestic equivalents are used in the manufacture of ultra-processed products, such as extrusion and moulding, and pre-processing for frying… Common attributes of ultra-processed products are hyper-palatability, sophisticated and attractive packaging, multi-media and other aggressive marketing to children and adolescents, health claims, high profitability, and branding and ownership by transnational corporations. Examples of typical ultra-processed products are: carbonated drinks; sweet or savoury packaged snacks; ice-cream, chocolate, candies (confectionery); mass-produced packaged breads and buns; margarines and spreads; cookies (biscuits), pastries, cakes, and cake mixes; breakfast ‘cereals’, ‘cereal’ and ‘energy’ bars; ‘energy’ drinks; milk drinks, ‘fruit’ yoghurts and ‘fruit’ drinks; cocoa drinks; meat and chicken extracts and ‘instant’ sauces; infant formulas, follow-on milks, other baby products; ‘health’ and ‘slimming’ products such as powdered or ‘fortified’ meal and dish substitutes; and many ready to heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes; poultry and fish ‘nuggets’ and ‘sticks’, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, and powdered and packaged ‘instant’ soups, noodles and desserts.
Research Summaries: Harm, Disease, Death
UPFs, Junk Food, Fast Food, Energy Drinks, Diet Drinks, Fake/Lab-Grown Food
In 20 Studies with Over a Million Participants, UPF Intake Increased Heart & Metabolic Diseases, Mental Disorders, and Death (2024, The Lancet)
Date — March 2024
Study — Meta-analysis of twenty studies with 1,101,073 participants and 58,201 cardiovascular event cases followed for an average of 12 years
Outcomes — “Greater exposure to ultra-processed food was associated with a higher risk of adverse health outcomes, especially cardiometabolic, common mental disorder, and mortality outcomes”
Publications — Ultra-processed food consumption and risk of cardiovascular events: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, The Lancet link + Study Finds Link Between Ultra-Processed Food and Potentially Fatal Heart Problems, Martha Garci, About Lawsuits link
“Emulsifiers Mess up the Microbiome” (2024, PLOS Medicine)
Date — Feb 23, 2024 and Feb 13, 2024
Study — 92,000 adults enrolled in the French NutriNet-Santé study, followed for an average of 6.7 years
Outcomes — “French researchers reported that emulsifiers added to improve the texture and shelf-life of processed foods wreak havoc on the gut microbiome, leading to inflammation and possibly cancer… During the study period, 2,604 cancer cases occurred… Higher intakes of mono- and diglyceride emulsifiers were associated with a higher risk for all cancers… Carrageenan emulsifiers were associated with additional breast cancer risk.”
Publications — Emulsifiers Mess Up the Microbiome, Children’s Health Defense link + Results from the French prospective NutriNet-Santé cohort, PLOS Medicine link
More UPFs Caused Young Adults to Have More PFAS — Linked to Cancer, Immune and Reproductive Issues (2024, Environment International)
Date — Feb 22, 2024 and Feb 4, 2024
Study — 727 young adults
Food Packaging Includes EDCs Which Affect Virtually Every System of the Body + Some are Classified as Obesogens; Exposure to Obesogens in the Womb or While Young Predisposes Child to Obesity (2017); They Trigger “Permanent and Sometimes Transgenerational Changes to Fat Cells” (2020)
Date — May 31, 2017 and June 2020
Study — In the results published in 2017, urinary concentrations of phthalates were collected twice during pregnancy from 345 mothers and then body composition of their children was assessed between 5 and 12 years of age
UPFs: No Health Benefits, Increase Chronic Disease & Mental Health Issues
High ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption is associated with an increased risk of a variety of chronic diseases and mental health disorders. At present, not a single study reported an association between UPF intake and a beneficial health outcome.
An Umbrella Review & Meta-Analyses, June 2024
Anxiety, Depression, Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Cancers, and Premature Death
A study published in the British Medical Journal finds people who consume high amounts of ultra-processed foods have an increased risk of anxiety, depression, obesity, metabolic syndrome, certain cancers and premature death. The data come from more than 9 million people who participated in dozens of studies.
See much more in the full curation. Includes a resource list with more than 350 references, organized by date and spanning 2005 through 2026, like this:
Apr 25, 2026 — A Simple Sugar in Ultra-Processed Foods May Drive Obesity, Metabolic Disease — Mandy French & Jill Seladi-Schulman PhD, Healthline link
Apr 25, 2026 — Ultraprocessed Foods Linked to 4 in 10 Cardiovascular Deaths and Increased Mortality Risk — Dr. Joseph Mercola link
Apr 23, 2026 — Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to Weaker Bones, Higher Fracture Risk in Major Study; “Even a few extra servings a day—think a frozen dinner, a cookie, and a soda—were linked to a more than 10 percent higher risk of hip fracture. The findings, published in The British Journal of Nutrition, come from one of the largest studies ever conducted on diet and bone health.” — Rachel Ann T. Melegrito, The Epoch Times link
Apr 17, 2026 — Fructose: metabolic signal and modern hazard — Richard J. Johnson et al, Nature link
Mar 24, 2026 — Periconceptional ultra-processed food consumption in women and men, fertility, and early embryonic development; “Higher maternal UPF consumption was associated with smaller embryonic growth and yolk sac volume, and higher paternal UPF consumption was associated with reduced fertility.” — Celine H. X. Lin et al, Human Reproduction link
Mar 6, 2026 — Associations of ultra-processed food intake with bone mineral density and fractures in the UK Biobank — Huaying Hu et al, British Journal of Nutrition link
Feb 20, 2026 — Working Towards A Healthy Weight? Ditch These “Clean” Foods ASAP; “Even when ultraprocessed foods met national dietary guidelines, they were linked to fewer improvements in weight and fat loss compared to minimally processed meals. In fact, participants lost twice as much weight when they ate mostly real, whole foods, without counting calories or macros.” — Ava Durgin, mindbodygreen link
Dec 3, 2025 — Is UPF the Next Tobacco? Companies without a metabolic-health strategy will look like laggards, financially and socially; “San Francisco just filed the most aggressive lawsuit yet against America’s processed-food giants. Kraft Heinz, General Mills, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Kellogg’s, Mars, ConAgra: the whole UPF empire is in the crosshairs. The complaint argues that ultra-processed foods were engineered for addiction, marketed to children, laced with untested additives…” — Carter Williams link
Nov 19, 2025 — Out today: The Lancet series on ultra-processed foods; “KEY MESSAGE: Reducing production and consumption of ultra-processed foods is a priority global health issue. Therefore, ultra-processed foods require a global response to: confront corporate power, reclaim public policy space, and restructure food systems to prioritize health, equity, and sustainability over corporate profit.” — Marion Nestle, Food Politics link
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