Health News Update: Please Avoid Ultra-Processed ‘Foods’

Mark Smith • January 13, 2025

Hello again:

 

The next series of newsletter is a follow up to the last one dated 1.6.25 and continues the theme that Food is Medicine…i.e., you are/become what you eat. Here is a link to a short video on ultra-processed things to eat, which should not be called food as it harms more than it nourishes. My ongoing wish for you is that you make the commitment to consuming nourishment…whole food plant-based minimally processed (home cooking), plastic free, organic when possible…and become your own physician and master some level of home cooking. By taking the interest in learning how to create delicious and diverse meals, you invest in your future that offers you a greater return for your efforts/time/money than any other possible investment other than sincere prayer and/or meditation.


A relatively simple way to understand this is to note what is contained in unprocessed wholefoods that is not in ultra-processed stuff. Let us start with a class of phytonutrients called polyphenols.


“Inflammation occurs by activation of the immune system in response to infection, injury, or irritation. In recent decades, the role that inflammation plays across wide spectra of human diseases and disease processes has received considerable attention. At the same time, there is mounting evidence that polyphenols can prevent, mitigate, or contribute to the prevention and/or treatment of many conditions and diseases associated with chronic or systematic inflammation.”


https://www.academia.edu/14659803/Polyphenols_and_inflammation


Bottom Line:


Since you already know that inflammation will cause, perpetuate, and/or aggravate all known human illnesses, then it only makes sense to consume and anti-inflammatory food pattern…in other words, do not feed the fire (pain, fatigue, aging, malfunction, disease). The only place you get polyphenols is from a minimally processed whole-foods dietary pattern. To make it easier to get started or to refine or upgrade your food pattern, aim for a 90/10 balance. This means to allow only 10% or less of all of your food intake to have some processed qualities. This is a do-able goal and one that is reasonable from both a scientific viewpoint and a real world ability. This is truly the best type of health insurance you can get.



By Mark Smith March 23, 2026
Health News Update: How To Fight Inflammation and Chronic Disease 3.23.26 Hello again everyone: You might wonder why I keep focusing on food…so here are some of the reasons: food choices are the leading cause of death in the U.S. and spreading around the world. Poor food choices lead to inflammation which slowly destroy health. It is that simple, plain, and clear and backed by research. The next question: how do we fight back? Introduction The positive impact of food on health was postulated by the ancient Hippocrates, father of modern medicine with his famous quote: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” [1]. In the 21st century, scientists have focused on the effect of nutritional habits in diseases. Nowadays, it is well documented that food plays a noteworthy role in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases namely cardiovascular diseases (CVD), metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus type II, and cancer [2–5], as it correlates with others with the lipid pattern, the blood pressure, and the endothelial function. The scientists examine the effect of nutritional habits on disease emergence and progression in both individual nutrient intake and dietary patterns models. Worldwide, two dietary patterns are usually compared—the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the Western diet (WD) [3,6]. The Mediterranean diet reflects the food culture of most Mediterranean countries based on olive oil consumption, seasonal fresh vegetables, cereals, and plants in balance with low consumption of meat [7]. The Western diet, on the contrary, is dominated by high-fat dairy products processed and red meat [8]. However, discordance in the different MD patterns and consumed food doses had been recognized. Without any doubt, those discrepancies could confine and restrict our knowledge on the health benefit mechanisms of the MD [9]. Due to the above, the medical community along with nutritionists and dieticians take a keen interest in MD and its traits [7]. https://www.academia.edu/45378994/biomedicines_Mediterranean_Diet_as_a_Tool_to_Combat_Inflammation_and_Chronic_Diseases_An_Overview?email_work_card=view-paper food choices can fight inflammation and chronic disease Bottom Line: This is a 2020 paper and since then literally hundreds of papers on the MD have emerged showing how the food plan lowers inflammation and the risk for developing multiple chronic illnesses. Even still, lots of research needs to be done to elucidate the many mechanisms of how food impacts our system and how to optimally individualize dietary recommendations. At this point, our best strategy to prevent and/or recover from any chronic condition is to eat as clean and natural as possible. It has become rather obvious that the further away from a natural diet we get, the sicker we become. On top of that, I have yet to see a full recovery from any health issue without the foundation of a predominantly plant-based, unprocessed, whole foods approach…which is why I keep posting about this subject. All the best to you and yours!
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