One simple way to lower diabetes risk: Eat fewer processed foods

Additives in processed foods increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

The study was done with 109,000 adults (average age of 43) between the years 2009 and 2023, and implicated ingredients that are food emulsifiers and acidifiers. Emulsifiers include modified starches, pectin, guar gum, carrageenan, polyphosphates and xanthan gum. The acidifiers include citric acid, caramel coloring, aspartame and sucralose.

The information is not new but is getting a lot of attention right now, said Miguel Prieto, MD, an internist with Cape Cod Healthcare’s Bourne Primary Care.

“I’m very happy that this is coming out and people are becoming more aware,” he said.

Dr. Prieto recommends that to attain the best nutritional benefit people should eat a whole food, non-processed, predominantly plant-based diet. But he acknowledges that most Americans do not eat that way.

“Over 60 percent of our caloric intake in the U.S. is from processed foods or ultra-processed foods,” he said. “The fact is that the processed and ultra-processed foods are significantly calorie-dense so even if you don’t eat a lot of them, they have a lot of calories.”

Processed and ultra-processed foods are pro-inflammatory and can cause multiple health problems in addition to diabetes, he said. Emulsifiers also have negative effects on our microbiome and can cause leaky gut syndrome. Caramel coloring can lead to the formation of carcinogens, which led the state of California to regulate that soft drink companies must put a warning label on products containing it.

Other Examples

Caramel coloring isn’t the only ingredient in colas that have negative health consequences.

“Colas normally have this color added and they are pitch black, so they add a lot of phosphorus (to lighten it), which is a huge strain on your kidneys and can cause kidney failure,” Dr. Prieto said. “It’s just horrible. It’s funny because a lot of these colorings are done not to preserve the food, but to make it more appealing to your eyes.”

Another example is the cheese on frozen pizza. Manufacturers add titanium dioxide which is the ingredient in sunblock.

“It makes the cheese whiter and people eat that,” he said. “And that’s associated not just with leaky gut but with Crohn’s (disease) and ulcerative colitis, so you can get bleeding. Artificial sweeteners like Splenda immediately disrupt the gut microbiome and they make these chemicals that cause you to lose insulin resistance. So even if they have no sugar to be absorbed, it is an issue.”

Dr. Prieto said the best solution to this problem is for consumers to simply stop buying the processed foods that contain the suspect ingredients. Food companies won’t change their practices just to keep people healthy, but they will change if it becomes a commercial liability, he said.

There is some evidence recently that societal pressure is working. Kraft Heinz announced this past June that it will be removing all food dyes from products sold in the U.S. in 2027 and will immediately stop making new products with those dyes. The company previously removed the artificial dye that made its Kraft Mac & Cheese bright yellow about a decade ago. Now the yellow coloring comes from spices like paprika and turmeric.

Making Cape Cod a Blue Zone

Dr. Prieto regularly advises his patients on how to eat for better health. Even small changes can help, he said. For example, he cites a study that shows that if you decrease your animal protein by just 5 percent, you can cut your risk for Alzheimer’s by 15 percent.

Another study he likes to cite included 21,000 people. The study participants had to commit to eating five one-half-cup servings of fruits and vegetables a day and exercise 30 minutes a day. They were non-smokers and could be overweight but not obese. 

“If they met those four criteria there was a 93 percent reduction in the incidence of diabetes, an 80 percent reduction in the risk for heart attack, 50 percent reduction of strokes and 36 percent reduction in the risk for all cancers,” he said. “These were not fully plant-based diets and yet they had significant improvement.” 

For people looking for more information about how food additives and ultra processed foods affect health, Dr. Prieto recommends Dr. Michael Greger’s website NutritionFacts.org.

“My goal is not to make everybody a vegan,” he said. “My goal that I hope to see in my lifetime is to make Cape Cod one of those Blue Zones, which is one of those areas with the highest concentration of centenarians. You just have to make better choices. Every time you make a choice, you either make diseases worse or better. We just have to educate people so they can make the right choices.”