Health News Update: Your Year of Health Renewal: 2025

Hello everyone:

First off, all of us hear wish you a wonderful and healthy New Year’s celebration. And secondly, we wish you and yours a healthy 2025…and if you follow my blogs then you know that inflammation will cause, aggravate, and/or perpetuate all illness or disease. Additionally, you know that according to the literature, the leading risk factor for death and disability is food driven inflammation. Given the fact that at least 60% of the average person’s diet is derived from ultra-processed foods (UPF’s), and that these so called food like things drive inflammation it then becomes easy to see that just eliminating UPF’s is the single most powerful move you can make to securing a future free from illness as well as to speed your recovery from any condition.

You may also be aware, that this conversation is a bit more nuanced than previously thought, so some clarity can be helpful as is provided by this short article:

“UPFs are generally packaged foods that contain ingredients to extend shelf life and improve taste and palatability. It's important because 60%-70% of the US diet, if not more, is made up of UPFs. So, the relationship between UPFs and CVD (cardiovascular disease…the leading cause of death) and other health outcomes is actually very important. 

Often, UPFs will include additives, such as preservatives, flavor enhancers, colorants, emulsifiers, and sweeteners, and they tend to have an excess amount of calories, added sugars, added salt, sodium, and saturated fat. The packaging can be high in bisphenols, which have also been linked to some health outcomes. 

In comparing the highest quintile vs the lowest quintile [of total UPF intake], we saw that some of the UPFs were associated with significant elevations in risk for CVD (over 20%). These included sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats. But some UPFs were linked with a lower risk for CVD. These included breakfast cereals, yogurt, some dairy desserts, and whole grains.”



Overall, it seemed that UPFs are actually quite diverse in their association with health. It's not one size fits all. They're not all created equal, and some of these differences matter. Although overall we would recommend that our diets be focused on whole foods, primarily plant based, lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, and other whole foods, it seems from this report and the meta-analysis that certain types of UPFs can be incorporated into a healthy diet and don't need to be avoided entirely.” 

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/ultraprocessed-foods-and-cvd-myths-vs-facts-2024a1000iqn?ecd=wnl_dne1_241018_MSCPEDIT_etid6917809&uac=428598BV&impID=6917809

Bottom Line:

It becomes clear that the overall dietary pattern needs to be from unprocessed or minimally processed (baked, fermented, etc.) whole foods and to avoid added sugars, processed meats, additives, preservatives, plastics, and other chemicals or processing steps. For example, sugary and flavored yogurts may largely lose their health benefits when compared to unsweetened brands. Whole pure and minimally processed grains (e.g. natural granola without added sugars, sweeteners, oils, etc.) can be a component of a healthy plant-based food plan, especially if they are organic and pesticide free. However, if you have blood sugar issues, it is not something you should eat every day.

It is most important to focus at least 90% of our food from a plant-based plate that is home cooked, whole food, unprocessed, as organic as possible and not fried or overly heated. If now and then we have something less than optimal, it should not create such a nutritional stress or debt to significantly matter.

On the other hand, if you are struggling with ANY type of chronic condition, the first thing that is needed is to shift your food plan to a 100% clean plate: organic, unprocessed, whole foods that are mostly vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, beans, and whole natural grains (you may benefit from avoiding gluten and dairy as well as reduce meat consumption at least 50%). Once you have improved and stabilized your health, then you can think about a ‘cheat’ every so often.

There are so many resources on this it is hard to know where to begin, and from my experience I can give you a small list of authors that is a great place to start creating a healthy and anti-inflammatory lifestyle:

·      Eat For Life: Joel Fuhrman, MD who originated the Nutritarian philosophy

·      Food Revolution Network: they have several excellent cookbooks, classes, and other resources.

·      Forks Over Knives: magazines, classes, cookbooks

·      The Longevity Diet: Valter Longo, PhD

·      What to Eat, When: Michael Roizen, MD…when is as important as what we eat!!

It is important to know that you can use these informational sources as a foundation of knowledge that you can tweak to your tastes and needs. I will frequently “Smitherize” most recipes but still keep them whole, unprocessed, plant-based and as natural as possible. For example, a really good sounding recipe may have an ingredient that you do not particularly like, so find a substitute for that: as a vegetarian I will often substitute tofu or tempe or beans or nuts in place of chicken or fish or meat. If you simply go online and search for anti-inflammatory plant-based recipes, you can find some great resources like the Minimalist Baker or Downshiftology (they also have great cookbooks).

WARNING: It is possible to eat a junk plant-based food pattern, such as mac and cheese, buns, cupcakes, chips, pancakes, breads, fake meats of all kinds (highly processed) and more…so be careful…lean on the vegetables, learn many ways to prepare them and reap the rewards of eating the way our Mother Earth has provided for us from the beginning. Think about how this Creation has been fashioned and what was provided to us for our nourishment and re-align with that way of life. Food is so foundational to every aspect of our health that I have never seen a patient fully recover from any chronic health condition without a balanced plant-based whole food approach…no matter how many supplements that are consumed. Food first, please!!!

Take these ideas, think about them, make them your own in your own way, and enjoy a spectacular New Year as you watch your health transformation.

For more information, here is the link to the research upon which the above link was based:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(24)00186-8/fulltext