Transcription
to your 160.5 lovely so step forward
Amy and Nancy are 24 year old twins so
Amy and Nancy what we want to do is to
look at how food processing impacts your
health they're taking part in a test
with Dr Sarah Berry and Professor Tim
Spector from King's College London what
you're going to do is for two weeks
Nancy you're going to be doing the
unprocessed diet and Amy you're going to
be eating the ultra processed diet then
we're going to get you back here and
then we're going to do the same test
again and look at how these different
foods have impacted your health the
twins diet will be matched exactly for
calories nutrients fat sugar and fiber
food accounts for more than 50 of our
energy intake and it's an even bigger
problem in children so it counts about
65 of our energy intake for children
this is actually increasing at an
alarming rate
We Believe old processed foods are
having an unfavorable effect on our
health is because the actor processing
Foods breaks down the structure of the
foods often Ultra processed foods have
very little fiber in them or the fiber
is removed
many of these ingredients most people
won't have heard of but what we don't
know is how all of these different
chemicals might interact together in
terms of our health
I do eat some processed foods just out
of convenience but I do love lots of
freshers and have quite healthy diet I
think so I think it is going to be a bit
of a shift
for breakfast this morning I had a
quinoa porridge with berries on top and
done a really good job of keep me
energized and full so it's the end of
the day now and I've got a bit of a
headache to be honest so yeah ending the
day still hungry
feeling a bit sort of rubbish and yeah a
bit of a headache lots of the things
that you've just described about your
headache all point to the fact that
you're probably having what we call a
glucose dip which is a dip in blood
sugar that happens about two to four
hours after people consume really
heavily processed refined carbohydrates
this is a mousse
made with fruit puree and only 73
calories yeah you'd think that would be
a healthy option oh my goodness pork
gelatin glucose fructose syrup acidity
regulator citric acid sodium hydroxide
modified May starch
there's a term we use called the health
Halo where you you know you have
packaging says uh high in fiber or low
in sugar low in salt plant-based all of
these kind of magic words that make
people think wow these are really
healthy if anything ever says low
reduced or no I'd always be a bit
suspicious because how else have they
therefore made that food taste great
in the last decade the evidence has been
slowly growing that Ultra processed food
is harmful for us in ways we hadn't
thought
the twins find there is one ingredient
they keep seeing again and again on food
packets
and then emulsifiers again we've seen
that a few times haven't they
emulsifiers are essentially a glue they
stick components together so that they
have a good mouth feel and they don't
fall apart in your mouth or on the plate
so here we have carboxy methyl cellulose
CMC which is one of the commonest
emulsifiers used in the food industry
I'm just going to demonstrate what
happens when you just add water to it
and it very rapidly
becomes like a glue the food industry
uses around 60 different emulsifiers to
enhance the appearance texture and shelf
life of ultra processed foods
some are naturally occurring others are
chemically produced it's found an
incredible number of our foods and they
are potentially harmful Dr matil TVA is
leading one of the world's biggest
studies into food additives publishing
regular reports based on the health and
eating habits of 174 000 people
she's been looking at emulsifier's
long-term impact on health the BBC has
had exclusive access to the early
results
the yet to be verified by peer review
but she says they're concerning we
observed a significant associations
between emulsifier intake and increased
risk of cancer overall and breast cancer
notably but also with a cardiovascular
diseases
in England Wales and Northern Ireland
food safety is regulated by the food
standards agency the FSA it says it's
about to launch a public consultation on
some emulsifiers a spokesperson for the
food and drink Federation said food
manufacturers take the health of
consumers and safety of the food they
produce seriously and adhere to the
strict regulations in the UK all
additives are independently and
rigorously assessed to safety by the
food standards agency before they can be
used in food
the results of the twins tests are now
in Amy you are on the ultra processed
food diet your results were really quite
different to your sisters they were far
worse your blood fat levels actually
went up your lipids which are markers of
heart disease they were increased your
blood sugar was noticeably worse you
actually gained weight nearly a kilogram
and you actually lost weight it's a bit
scary isn't it after only two weeks to
sorts of results so just imagine what
that would be over 20 years
after just two weeks of the test the
impact of Amy's Ultra processed diet
will be fully reversible but the results
are in line with a growing body of
evidence linking chemical additives and
Ultra processing to serious health
consequences we already have the most
obese children in Europe that means more
type 2 diabetes more cancers more heart
disease more misery more mental illness
this really is a future time bomb there
are now dozens of scientific studies
warning of the dangers of diets high in
Ultra processed food the twins test
showed the potential impact these foods
can have on you in just two weeks Esme
Stallard BBC News