Navigating the dangers when health gets political

During an election season, it often seems the media is full of contradictions. This year is no different. Take the recent spin on nutrition via Time magazine. In 2023, Time published an article entitled, Why Ultra-Processed Foods Are So Bad For You. Just last week, they brought out a new take, titled What If Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t As Bad As You Think? After merely two days (sparked by outrage from health advocates on social media), Time updated the article with the headline, Why One Dietitian is Speaking Up for Ultra-Processed Foods.

As a health coach, I take a vested interest in the latest nutrition research as well as how the media reports on it. The recent article from Time features the experiment of dietitian Jessica Wilson, who swapped her diet for 80% ultra-processed foods and saw improvements in her energy and anxiety levels. Her anecdotal improvements fly in the face of what the large database of evidence-based research shows about ultra-processed foods.

The Science on Ultra-Processed Foods

Just last March, The BMJ (one of the world’s leading medical journals) published the world’s largest scientific review of its kind, involving 10 million people, stating that diets high in processed food are linked to thirty-two harmful health effects. This includes cancer, asthma, mental illness, heart disease, and more.

The review defined ultra-processed foods as “ready to eat products, including packaged snacks, carbonated soft drinks, instant noodles, and ready-made meals.” They are “composed of chemically modified substances extracted from foods, along with additives to enhance taste, texture, appearance, and durability, with minimal to no inclusion of whole foods.”

This review proposed the following reasons for the negative health outcomes:

• Poor nutrient profiles in UPFs lack fiber, micronutrients, and protein.
• Food processing affects digestion, nutrient absorption, and feelings of satiety (meaning you eat a lot but never feel full).
• The abundance of UPFs takes the place of fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, legumes, and all the polyphenols they contain.
• Exposure to additives like artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, and colors leads to negative health outcomes.
• A combination of multiple additives can have a “cocktail” effect, increasing risks more than just one additive alone.
• The packaging itself increases the risk of exposure to known toxins like microplastics and phthalates.
• The high-calorie hyper-palatability of the food (“betcha can’t have just one”) leads to quickly overconsuming so you still feel hungry, increasing consumption over time, and more negative health effects.
• Researchers concluded that “no reason exists to believe that humans can fully adapt to these products. The body may react to them as useless or harmful, so its systems may become impaired or damaged, depending on their vulnerability and the amount of ultra-processed food consumed.”

Other articles have reached similar conclusions. One article, published in 2023 in the journal Addiction, explained that after tobacco companies were strictly regulated by the government in the 1960s, they found a new way to hook consumers—through ultra-processed food manufacturing. These companies chose to “engineer junk food loaded with fat, carbohydrates and sodium in combinations that are irresistible to people because they trigger our brains’ reward system.” This means that the “betcha you can’t have just one effect” isn’t a personal discipline problem—it’s a complex neurological effect your brain experiences that companies are literally banking on. While the average consumer feels powerless by their food choices and plagued by poor health outcomes, big food companies continue to fill their pockets. (It should come as no surprise that major media outlets are frequently sponsored by food giants such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Nestle.)

To make matters more interesting, this article appeared shortly after long-time Democrat and Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign and made the public declaration to endorse Donald Trump with the promise to “Make America Healthy Again.” In his speech endorsing former President Trump, he shared that “we have to love our children more than we hate each other.” RFK Jr. highlighted the importance of restoring national health and reversing the country’s chronic disease epidemic. Though he is portrayed by the media to be an anti-vaccine activist, personal interviews with him show that isn’t the case. He recently posted a video on his Instagram to set the record straight, showing that he wants to hold pharmaceutical companies legally responsible for injuries due to vaccines, just as they are with other medications.

Growing Media Distrust

The media’s skewing of information and clickbait headlines have fueled a growing distrust of media in general among many Americans. In 2022, for example, a Gallup poll reported that for the first time ever, “the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.” Only 7 percent of Americans polled had a “great deal of trust” in the media, as opposed to 38 percent that had “none at all.”

The latest headline in Time, combined with Trump’s new interest in “making America healthy again,” causes one to wonder if there are political factors involved in how this story is portrayed. While shifting views in light of new information is not wrong, one major publication taking an opposing stance on the processed food conversation than they had one year prior is, at least, suspect.

What’s a believer to do with all this back-and-forth information?

What you consume matters. Regardless of where you stand politically, what you think of the media, and how many ultra-processed foods are in your pantry, I want to remind you of two things:

What you consume impacts your body, mind, and soul. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “all things are lawful but not all things build up” (1 Corinthians 10:23). Today, this concept applies to both your intake of food as well as your intake of media. You have the freedom to surround yourself with news information 24/7, but it might not lead to a felt sense of safety emotionally. It might lead to anxiety, fear, or frustration. Likewise, you have the freedom to consume ultra-processed foods as much as you want, but it might not lead to a felt sense of safety physiologically. It might lead to nutrient deficiencies, increased cravings, and poor health outcomes.

What you consume impacts your relationship with your heavenly Father. When you put trust in the created over the Creator, it creates a disconnect in your most important relationship on earth. When you invest more time in social media political debates than in studying God’s Word and being with him, it brings spiritual disconnect. When you put all faith in the research and anxiously obsess over eliminating every ultra-processed food from your diet, it may, for some, create a spiritual disconnect to the same extent as feeling hooked and out of control from the dopamine hit that bag of Doritos will give you.

We live in a hungry culture. We hunger for justice, truth, freedom, value, safety, contentment, and yes—for food that fills us up and makes us feel good. I want to encourage you in this season not to get overly wrapped up in your earthly hunger at the expense of your spiritual health. Food is important, as it helps us function to live out our God-given purpose. Showing concern for political changes and current events is also important, as it helps us to connect with others in God-honoring ways. But keep in mind that our earthly longings tell of a deeper need. We serve a God who “satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:9).

Science evolves, headlines shift, and political parties change, but one thing remains the same. Your primary sustenance comes from the Bread of Life. “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).