: Modern Food Losing its Mojo
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Health News Update: Modern Food Losing its Mojo 9.22.25
Hello again everyone: As you might have guessed, modern food processing methods have resulted in foods of poor nutrient density. Here is some research to clarify some of these issues:
“Nutrition is the source of energy that is required to carry out all the processes of human body. A balanced diet is a combination of both macro- and micronutrients. “Nutritional inadequacy” involves an intake of nutrients that is lower than the estimated average requirement, whereas “nutritional deficiency” consists of severely reduced levels of one or more nutrients, making the body unable to normally perform its functions and thus leading to an increased risk of several diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease…Preventing macro- and micronutrient deficiency is crucial and this could be achieved through supplementation and food-based approaches.”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9710417/ Main nutritional deficiencies
“Because suboptimal vitamin status is associated with many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis, it is important for physicians to identify patients with poor nutrition or other reasons for increased vitamin needs.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/195038#google_vignette vitamins for chronic disease prevention
You might have guessed where many of these nutrient deficiencies, insufficiencies, and imbalances come from: processed and ultra-processed foods like objects. Processed and ultra-processed foods have been acknowledged to be low in nutritional levels and usually contain unhealthy levels of fats, sugars, salt, preservatives, additives, coloring agents, flavor enhancers, stabilizers, texture enhancers, and who knows what else. Research has associated consistent consumption with chronic diseases and health conditions.
“Such food now accounts for nearly 60% of U.S. adults’ calorie consumption. Among American children, that portion is close to 70%. In other words, ultra-processed food is starting to overwhelm the American diet.”
https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/07/ultra-processed-food--five-things-to-know.html ultra-processed food consumption alarming
Bottom Line: Stanford Medicine says that ultra-processed food is ‘starting’ to overwhelm the American diet…but with the statistics they quote it looks to me like it already has overwhelmed this country. Chronic consumption of nutrient poor foods leads to insufficiencies, deficiencies, and imbalances of micro and macro nutrients along with the additional risks of exposures and accumulations of pesticides and other agricultural/processing chemicals. Suboptimal nutrient status is associated with the development of inflammation and many chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and osteoporosis. To help yourself and the planet, shift as much of your food choices as possible to sources that are grown organically or as clean as possible. Support local farm shares, start your own garden, request your grocery stores to find and source better foods from local farmers into regenerative or restorative agriculture and make them more affordable and mainstream. This is actually something that is vital to take on to insure a healthy future for you and yours.
If you have the time, take a look at my previous blogs on ultra-processed foods and/or do a search on that ‘stuff’ as ultra-processed foods can be a driver of nutrient insufficiencies, deficiencies, imbalances and are known to drive inflammation and chronic illness. If you eat that ‘stuff’, please, just make 90% of your food be from unprocessed, whole-food, predominantly plant-based. You do not have to be perfect; it does not have to be all organic…yet I cannot think of a good reason to eat unhealthy food…why would you ever put diesel into your gas tank?
