The average calorie intake per person has increased significantly since 1970 in many parts of the world, particularly in developed countries. Health experts say that over 80% of additional calories we are eating are from grains, added oils and fats, and added sugars and sweeteners. All calorie-dense ingredients commonly found in processed foods. Unfortunately, only 2% are from eating more fruits and vegetables. How did grains fats and sugars creep into our food supply?
Many advances in food processing technology during the latter half of the past century have rapidly changed the typical diet. Grain started being milled since milling grain strips the fiber coating and many of the nutrients from whole wheat, this led to widespread use of highly refined grain flowers that are lower in nutritional quality. Industrial processing also allowed for refining vegetable oils in larger quantities than ever before and more salt into our diet resulting in 75% of the salt that we consume now coming from salt added to processed foods.As a result, we're consuming more calories but getting fewer nutrients.
If we think back to how our metabolic brain works, we can better understand why refined grains and added fats and sugars cause us to over-consume calories. We eat until the stretch receptors in our stomach reach a particular volume of food rather than until we have eaten a set number of calories.
Since processed foods are concentrated in calories and are low in bulky fiber, we consume more calories before our stomach senses we are full. Additionally, our stomach
and digestive track sense a certain threshold of nutrients. We stop eating based on the quality as well as the quantity of food. Since processed foods lack the nutrients of natural foods, lower nutrient density is another reason we are packing in more calories. The most alarming reasons scientists speculate processed fat, sugar, and refined grains are
causing rapid rates of obesity, however, is independent of their calorie content. They cause changes in our metabolism and hormones that raise our set point.
In animal studies, for example, when rodents were fed a high saturated fat diet,
they developed inflammation and injury to the nerve cells located in the hypothalamus which is the part of the brain that acts as command central for our appetite and energy regulation. The injured cells became leptin resistant or unable to sense the appetite hormone leptin which signals when we're full. As a result, rodents ate to the point where
they packed on more fat and drove up their set point. Some evidence suggest the same may be happening inside our bodies. Another way processed foods can raise our set point is by over-stimulating the reward center in our brain. It responds to pleasure from foods that raise dopamine namely, fat, sugar, and salt.
Back in ancestral times, the foods that gave us such intense satisfaction were limited. Sweet-tasting honey was only available seasonally. We could only get a small amount of fat from animals that roam wild and free and salt was only available in your water. It made sense for our bodies to get such a thrill from these foods to stay motivated to continue searching for food when we were starving in week. Today, processed foods are engineered to give an amount of pleasure and reward that is far beyond that found in natural food. Food scientists blend the perfect proportion of fat, sugar, and salt to find a bliss point. The point where a product has the maximum texture, feel, and taste to release the highest amount of dopamine. This quality makes it irresistible. So, you can't stop at one chip. Animal studies
suggest processed foods reward our brains far beyond the amount we can genetically handle. As our reward system gets overwhelmed, we binge when we eat junk food. This is thought to be another way we're driving up our set points.
In summary, processed foods are high in calories relative to volume and lack many vitamins and nutrients. There also contain unhealthy fats and sugars that interact with our brain to cause overeating. Avoiding process foods is one of the most important steps
you can take for maintaining a healthy body weight.
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