YOUR 2025 BRAIN BRAWN • MINI RESOLUTION SPECIAL EDITION

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Hello and happy Monday! Before we kick off our next mini resolution—which will be to eat more fruits and vegetables—we first want to take a dive, in today’s Special Edition of Motivated Mondays, into ultra-processed foods and their relationship with cognitive decline.

Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs)

In today’s fast-paced world, grocery shopping has transformed into a complex experience filled with a large array of choices. Among these options, processed and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have become staples for many, offering convenience and instant gratification. But as our carts fill with brightly packaged snacks and ready-to-eat meals, it’s crucial to pause and consider what we’re really putting into our bodies. And recent media coverage has shone the spotlight on just how harmful these UPFs can be.

In order to better understand health outcomes and inform food policy, researchers have created four food categories based on their degree of processing:
 

1. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods
2. Oils, fats, salt, and sugar
3. Processed foods
4. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs)

What is the definition of “ultra-processed foods”?

In general, UPFs are industrial formulations primarily 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.
 
UPFs are typically inexpensive, high in salt, sugar, and fat, but low in fiber, protein, and the nutrients found in the original foods. They are characterized by hyper-palatability, which is chemically engineered. As American molecular biologist and nutritionist Dr. Marion Nestle points out, UPFs are foods you could not make at home due to a lack of the necessary equipment and ingredients. These lab-created foods are designed to encourage individuals to eat beyond the point of satiety. Remember the ad, “No one can eat just one?

Examples of UPFs

Snacks: Chips, biscuits, cakes, pastries, sweets, chocolate, and ice cream.
 
Processed meats: Sausages, hot dogs, deli meats, and chicken nuggets.
 
Drinks: Sugar-sweetened beverages, energy drinks, and fruit drinks.
 
Ready meals: Frozen pizzas, pre-prepared pasta dishes, and packaged pies.
 
Breakfast cereals: Especially those with added sugars, artificial colors, and flavors.
 
Breads: Mass-produced packaged breads often contain additives.
 
Condiments: Bottled sauces, and dressings.


Health Risks

As Americans, 58% of our daily caloric intake comes from UPFs, displacing minimally processed, nutritious food in the diet. Alarmingly, a diet high in UPFs has been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, anxiety, and now cognitive decline and neurodegeneration.

Can’t the lab add the nutrients back in and restore a healthy diet? No, and here’s why.

Processing alters the chemical and physical properties of food, leading to a dietary reconstitution that affects not only the nutrients in the food item itself but also how or if those nutrients can be absorbed. Furthermore, industrial processing can produce harmful substances such as advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), trans fats, furans, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
 
The additives—emulsifiers, coloring agents, artificial sweeteners, and nitrates/nitrites—must also be considered, as they can disrupt the gut microbiome. These additives have been studied for safety as individual ingredients, yet they are often consumed together as a “cocktail,” which may amplify negative effects on human health. Additionally, contaminants in packaging, such as bisphenols, microplastics, mineral oils, and phthalates, pose further health risks. The body perceives these chemicals as foreign, triggering a cascading inflammatory response often referred to as “fast food fever.” Collectively, these factors result in elevated circulating biomarkers indicating oxidative stress and cellular damage.
 
Alarmingly, more than 1,500 observational studies indicate a strong, direct association between UPF consumption and mortality, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, including diabetes, and mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.  All of these are known risk factors for cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases.

A rare clinical trial (PMID 31105044) supports observational findings on ultra-processed foods (UPFs). In a 4-week controlled study, participants alternated between UPF and minimally processed diets, matched for calories and nutrients. On the UPF diet, they consumed ~500 more calories daily and gained 2 pounds. On the minimally processed diet, they lost 2 pounds and showed improved hunger hormone profiles and metabolic markers.

Moreover, studies regarding UPFs, cognitive decline and neurodegeneration have found a direct association between consumption of UPFs and the development of dementia in a dose-response fashion, meaning more UPFs consumed = greater risk of cognitive decline and/or dementia. Conversely, replacing just 10% of UPFs in the diet with a proportional equivalent of minimally processed foods has been estimated to reduce the risk of dementia by 19%, a finding which gives credence to the value of minimally processed diets, such as the Mediterranean and Nordic Diets.

Just last month, a groundbreaking study identified a strong association between long term consumption of UPFs and the development of non-motor prodromal Parkinson’s disease (PD) features, including partial loss of the ability to smell, daytime sleepiness, body pain, impaired color vision and depressive symptoms.

The research on UPFs is fairly new, dating as far back only to 2017...
 
But there is likely a direct, yet to be established, mechanism of action where UPFs negatively impact neurological health. Presently we understand the relationship to be inflammatory in nature and also related to comorbidities such as cardiometabolic diseases and mental health disorders.

What does all this mean for you?
 
It’s all a matter of making better choices, namely, eating real food!!
 
What is real food? Simply ask yourself, “Did my grandmother eat this food,” “Can I make this at home?” “Are the listed ingredients sold on grocery shelves?” If the answer is “no,” don’t put it in your grocery cart.
 
If you need some additional guidance on how to make better choices, you can try the Yuka app. Just scan your item’s barcode and the app will provide a grade for that item out of 100, as well as better food alternatives. Sometimes the alternatives include items with artificial sweeteners—be sure to avoid those!