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Aisle of Ultraprocessed Foods at Walmart
(Photo by Thayne Tuason via Wikipedia)

COGwriter

Here are two reports on the risks and harms associated with ultra-processed foods:

19 November 2025

Women who eat large amounts of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are at a greater risk of developing a precursor to bowel cancer, according to a new study.

Research found women who frequently eat UPFs are at a significantly higher risk of being diagnosed with a growth in the bowel that, while non cancerous, can develop into cancer over a long period of time.

Writing in the journal Jama Oncology, experts said that the study provides insight on how diet can influence early changes in the bowel.

They monitored 29,105 women with an average age of 45, gathering food surveys from them taken every four years.

Their findings showed women who regularly ate UPFs such as processed sauces, crisps, processed meats and many ready meals had a 45 per cent higher likelihood of developing a type of polyp called an adenoma than those with the lowest consumption. Those who ate the highest proportion of UPFs ate around 9.9 portions a day. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/ultra-processed-food-bowel-cancer-adenoma-diet-b2868106.html

Ultra-processed foods threaten public health — researchers

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) pose a significant threat to public health and require urgent attention, according to global health experts.

More than 40 experts from around the world published their research in top medical journal The Lancet, blaming UPFs for poor diets globally and a rise in diseases, from obesity to cancer.

“It’s about the evidence we have today about … ultra-processed foods and human health,” Carlos Monteiro, a lead researcher from University of Sao Paulo, said at an online briefing on Tuesday.

“What we know right now justifies global public action.”

Researchers blame food industry

The researchers said that UPFs currently represent more than half of all calories eaten in the United States, Australia and the UK.

They blamed massive corporations for changing global diets in recent decades by using aggressive marketing to sell products made with inferior ingredients and artificial methods.

Eight UPF manufacturers — Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Danone, Fomento Economico Mexicano, Mondelez, and Kraft Heinz — account for 42% of the sector’s $1.5 trillion (€1.3 trillion) in assets in 2021, the paper said.

“The key driver of the global rise in UPFs is the growing economic and political power of the UPF industry, and its restructuring of food systems for profitability above all else,” the researchers wrote.

“The industry comprises UPF manufacturers at its core, but also a broader network of co-dependent actors who collectively drive the production, marketing and consumption of UPFs.” https://www.dw.com/en/ultra-processed-foods-threaten-public-health-researchers/a-74798960

Notice also:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said between August 2021 and August 2023, American youth “consumed 61.9% of their daily calories, on average, from ultra-processed foods, while adults consumed 53.0% of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods.”

“Ultra-processed foods tend to be hyperpalatable, energy-dense, low in dietary fiber, and contain little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners, and unhealthy fats,” according to the CDC. “Ultra-processed food consumption has been associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News earlier this year, “We are poisoning ourselves and it’s coming principally from these ultra-processed foods.” 08/07/25 https://www.foxnews.com/health/majority-americans-get-more-than-half-calories-from-ultra-processed-foods-cdc-finds

Ultra-processed foods are highly consumed and are dangerous. And it is not just Westerners who are consuming them.

I remember my shock when my family and I were in Malaysia back in 1997 and I saw how much ultra-processed foods were consumed there.

Last Summer, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. also made some comments about ultra-processed foods:

August 24, 2024

RFK Jr. informed journalists at his special press conference in the early afternoon of Friday that America’s health crisis stems from ultra-processed foods pushed by giant food/pharma companies that have corrupted various federal agencies:

Autism rates were about one in 10,000 in my generation – in my kids Generation 1 in 34. I’ll repeat in California 1 and 22. Why are we letting this happen? Why are we allowing this to happen to our children? These are the most precious assets that we have in this country how can we let this happen to them.

About 18% of American teens now have fatty liver disease, that’s like one out of every five – that disease when I was a kid only affected late stage alcoholics who were elderly.

Cancer rates are skyrocketing in the Young and the old young. Adult cancers are up 70-79%. One in four American women is on anti-depressant medication. About 40% of teens have a mental health diagnosis and 15% of high schoolers are on Aderall, and half a million children on SSRIs.

So what’s causing this suffering? I’ll name two culprits first and the worst is ultra-processed food. About 70% of American children’s diet is ultra-processed that means industrial manufacturing – these Foods consist primarily of processed sugar, ultra-processed grains, and seed oils.

Scientists who, for many of them, formerly worked for the cigarette industry, which purchased all the big food companies in the 1970s and 80s, deployed thousands of scientists to figure out chemicals new chemicals to make the food more addictive, and these ingredients didn’t exist a 100 years ago. Humans aren’t biologically adapted to eat them. Hundreds of these chemicals are now banned in Europe but ubiquitous in American processed foods.

The second culprit is toxic chemicals in our food and our medicine and our environment pesticides food additives pharmaceutical drugs and toxic waste permeate every cell of our bodies. The Assault on our children’s cells and hormones is unrelenting – name just one problem many of these chemicals increase estrogen – because young children are ingesting so many of these hormone disruptors, America’s puberty rate is now occurring at age 10 to 13, which is six years earlier than girls were reaching puberty in 1900 our country has the earliest puberty rates of any continent on the Earth and no this isn’t because of better nutrition – this is not normal – breast cancer is also estrogen-driven and it now strikes one in eight women. We are mass poisoning all of our children. 

RFK Jr. then touched on the processed food industry lobbyists who have corrupted Washington, resulting in a food supply chain filled with poison that is killing Americans. He said several federal agencies that are supposed to protect consumers have also been corrupted.

He pointed out that the processed food industry has been “destroying small farms, and they’re destroying our soils.” https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/rfk-jr-donald-trump-will-end-war-small-wars-save-nations-food-supply-chain

While some in mainstream act like Kennedy is a bit of a nut, the fact is that, yes, ultra-processed foods are dangerous.

Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations typically made with ingredients not commonly used in home cooking. These often include substances like flavor enhancers, colorings, emulsifiers, preservatives, and other additives. The term comes from the NOVA classification system, which categorizes foods based on how much they are processed.

I asked ChatGPT for a list if them. So, here is its list of common examples of ultra-processed foods:

---

🔹 Snacks and Sweets

• Packaged cookies and biscuits

• Candy and chocolate bars

• Ice cream with artificial additives

• Sweetened breakfast cereals

• Snack cakes and pastries (e.g., Twinkies, Pop-Tarts)

• Energy or granola bars (with artificial flavors/preservatives)

---

🔹 Beverages

• Sugar-sweetened sodas (e.g., Coca-Cola, Pepsi)

• Energy drinks

• Flavored bottled iced teas

• Sweetened fruit drinks (not 100% juice)

• Meal-replacement shakes (though some can be actual foods)

• Powdered drink mixes

---

🔹 Packaged & Instant Meals

• Instant noodles

• Microwaveable frozen dinners (e.g., mac and cheese, frozen pizza)

• Cup/bowl ramen

• Boxed pasta meals with seasoning packs

• Canned ravioli or spaghetti in sauce

• Shelf-stable meat substitutes with long ingredient lists

---

🔹 Processed Meats and Alternatives

• Hot dogs

• Chicken nuggets

• Fish sticks

• Packaged deli meats (with preservatives like sodium nitrite)

• Plant-based meat alternatives with additives (e.g., Beyond Meat, Impossible Burger)

---

🔹 Breads and Bakery Items

• Packaged white bread (especially with additives and long shelf life)

• Hamburger or hot dog buns with preservatives

• Mass-produced muffins, donuts, and croissants

• Frozen waffles and pancakes

---

🔹 Sauces, Spreads, and Condiments

• Commercial mayonnaise

• Bottled salad dressings (with stabilizers and preservatives)

• Sweetened ketchup

• Artificially flavored cheese spreads

• Flavored dips made with powdered ingredients

---

🔹 Other Examples

• Flavored instant rice or grain dishes

• Powdered soups or cream-of-something mixes

• Artificially flavored cheese snacks (e.g., Cheetos)

• Pre-packaged flavored popcorn

• Low-calorie frozen desserts with artificial sweeteners

---

⚠️ Common Ingredients in Ultra-Processed Foods

If you see these on the label, it’s a red flag:

• High-fructose corn syrup

• Artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose)

• Hydrogenated oils or trans fats

• Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

• Artificial flavors/colors

• Emulsifiers (e.g., soy lecithin)

• Preservatives (e.g., BHA, BHT, sodium benzoate)

Now, in small quantities, these seem to have little negative effect for most people, but when they become a major part of the diet, their dangers go up substantially.

Last year, NewsMax reported the following:

Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to 32 Illnesses

February 29, 2024

Ultra-processed foods can cause dozens of terrible health problems among people who eat them too often, a new review warns.

Researchers linked diets high in ultra-processed foods to an increased risk of 32 separate illnesses. In particular, these foods are strongly tied to risk with early death, heart disease, cancer, mental health disorders, overweight and obesity, and Type 2 diabetes, researchers said.

For example, ultra-processed foods are associated with a 50% increased risk of heart-related death, a 48% to 53% increased risk of anxiety and common mental disorders, and a 12% risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers said. …

Ultra-processed foods include packaged snacks, sugary drinks, instant noodles, sweet cereals and ready-to-eat meals.

The products undergo multiple industrial processes to make them tasty and shelf-stable, and contain additives like emulsifiers, coloring agents and chemical flavors.

Unfortunately, ultra-processed foods now account for up to 58% of total daily energy intake in some high income-countries, and are proliferating in low- and middle-income countries, researchers said in background notes.

“Notably, over recent decades, the availability and variety of ultra-processed products sold has substantially and rapidly increased” in countries around the world, wrote the research team led by Melissa Lane, …

Alterations in the food made during manufacturing “may affect digestion, nutrient absorption and feelings of satiety,” the researchers wrote.

Emerging evidence in humans also has linked some additives used in the foods — non-sugar sweeteners, emulsifiers, colorants and nitrates or nitrites — with poor health outcomes, researchers said.

Intensive industrial processing of food might also produce harmful substances that contribute to chronic inflammation, and even packaging materials can contain contaminants, they added. … profit motives discourage food makers from switching to nutritious products. https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/ultra-processed-foods-illness/2024/02/29/id/1155395/

Yet, in the USA, various dietitians are pretending that obesity and processed foods are good and healthy (see General Mills funded dieticians who try to claim being obese is healthy and that ultra-processed foods are good).

But they are not healthy.

Why are they sold?

The Apostle Paul warned:

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, (1 Timothy 6:10)

Greed, not health, drives much of the food processing industry. Notice:

Scientists criticize food manufacturers for massive profits from sales of unhealthy ultraprocessed food

November 18, 2025

Certain ultraprocessed foods, or UPFs, are contributing to worldwide obesity, chronic health conditions and premature death, yet the food industry continues to aggressively market new and existing products in this category for massive profits, according to an unprecedented three-part series authored by 43 global experts in nutrition and supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, and the World Health Organization.

More than 50% of the $2.9 trillion paid to shareholders by food corporations between 1962 and 2021 “was distributed by UPF manufacturers alone,” according to research published Tuesday in the leading medical journal The Lancet.

“We found evidence that UPF consumption is increasing everywhere around the world, fueled by powerful global corporations,” said coauthor Carlos Augusto Monteiro, professor emeritus of nutrition and public health in the School of Public Health at Brazil’s University of São Paulo.

“To keep this business model, which is highly profitable, the industry cannot afford to make minimally processed foods as they did in the past, so they use extensive political lobbying to stop effective public health policies that support healthy eating,” said Monteiro, who coined the term “ultraprocessed food” in 2009 when he developed the NOVA classification system, which categorizes foods into four groups by their level of industrial processing.

Companies can “double or triple their profits” by turning corn, wheat, beans and other whole foods “into a colorless and flavorless sawdust which is then reconstructed with artificial flavorings and additives,” said Barry Popkin, the W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/health/ultraprocessed-industry-profits-wellness

Yes, greed is a factor. And yes, the food industry advertises and promotes processed foods.

That said, remember Eve in the Garden:

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. (Genesis 3:6)

Eve reasoned around God’s restriction. The fruit looked like good and desirable food to her. Ultra-processed foods and many unclean meats that God’s word prohibits look like good and desirable foods to many–so this is not entirely the fault of the food processing industry.

Self-control is something Christians should have (e.g. 2 Peter 1:6).

Highly-processed junk foods may look good, taste good, and seem convenient, but if consumed at all, should be a very small part of anyone’s diet.

Yet most in the West deceive themselves that they are not eating too much of them or that they are fine. Plus there is a lot of advertising that promotes them. That brings to mind another warning from the Apostle Paul:

1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, … 13 … evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:1-2,13)

Because the negative effects take time, many are wrongly persuaded by advertisements and availability to eat too much highly processed foods. Many also deceive themselves into falsely believing that they cannot cause serious problems–yet they can.

The following scripture came to mind:

11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11)

As far as food processing goes, it really started to become a problem in the 19th century. This is when refined flour came out. Then we saw degerminated corn meal and white rice. Grits, which once were made of ground, whole organic corn, are now made with degerminated GMO corn, ‘fortified’ with synthetic vitamins. After corn was ‘degerminated’ many people in the Southern USA died from a disease called pellagra. Instead of going back to whole corn, chemically-derived synthetic vitamins were added, which I consider to be dangerous.

In the 19^th century, after natural brown rice became refined on a large scale, white rice became popular. Many preferred white rice because it could be stored longer than natural brown rice, plus it cooked faster.

In the 19^th century, a disease called beriberi began to cause many deaths in parts of Asia. Symptoms of beriberi include weight loss, emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception, weakness and pain in the limbs, and periods of irregular heart rate.

At first no one connected the consumption of white rice in with beriberi. Leading ‘infectious disease’ experts attempted to figure out what caused this beriberi outbreak, without success. The real cause was the greatly reduced consumption of B-vitamins that was in the portion of the rice that was refined away—but no one realized this at first.

Now, we have even more highly processed items in the food supply–and also genetically-modified substances that there is limited data on the possible long-term health consequences of their consumption.

What should you eat? You should eat real food and for most people, at least two or more servings of fruit and three of more servings of vegetables daily, relatively small amounts of meats, whole grains, and olive oil come to mind. Refined grains, sugars (whether natural or artificial), sodas, and GMOs should be highly limited or not consumed at all

God’s word says:

2 … Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good (Isaiah 55:2).

People should try to eat real, not artificial, foods. And if you take vitamins and minerals, take the type whose nutrients are 100% food (which is what I personally do).

In 2022, the Continuing Church of God put out the following sermon on its ContinuingCOG channel:

It is nice that some are warning about some of the evils affecting the food supply.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Christian Health Matters Should Christians be concerned about their health? Does the Bible give any food and health guidelines? Here are links to three related sermons: Let’s Talk About Food, Evil is Affecting the Food Supply, and Let’s Talk About Health.
American foods that gross out foreigners A study done in the Fall of 2014 found out which foods that non-USA Americans considered weird or gross that Americans eat. This video discusses those foods, ingredients in some of those foods, and warns against consuming ‘that which is not bread’ (Isaiah 55:2). Dr. Thiel also warns about synthetic vitamins and some of the issues associated with them. He also discusses something promoted by the late Seventh-day Adventist, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.
The New Testament Church, History, and Unclean Meats Are foods considered to have been unclean in the Old Testament considered to be food in the New Testament? This article discusses this from the perspective of the New Testament. It also has a list of clean and unclean animals. It also answers the question, is pork healthy or is pork dangerous? There is also a sermon-length video on this: Christians and Unclean Meats; two short videos are also available: Did Jesus declare all animal flesh food? and COVID, Pandemics, and Unclean Meat.
Obesity, processed foods, health risks, and the Bible Does the Bible warn about the consequences of being obese? Is overeating dangerous? Is gluttony condemned? What diseases are associated with eating too much refined foods?
Eating Right, Eating Too Much, and Prophecy Are there disadvantages to being overweight? Is junk food really bad for you? Does the Bible discuss overeating and/or obesity? Is overeating having an effect on the US military? What are the ramifications of personal and national health for overeating? What should you eat? This is a sermonette-length YouTubevideo.
GMOs and Bible Prophecy What are GMOs? Since they were not in the food supply until 1994, how could they possibly relate to Bible prophecy? Do GMOs put the USA and others at risk? Here are some related videos: GMO Risks and the Bible and GMOs, Lab meat, Hydrogenation: Safe or Dangerous?
Chimeras: Has Science Crossed the Line? What are chimeras?  Has science crossed the line? Does the Bible give any clues? A video of related interest is Half human, half pig: What’s the difference?  and Human-Monkey Embryos and Death.
Ten Simple Rules that Lead to Health Herbert Armstrong gives his opinions on this.
Does God Heal Today? What does the Bible teach? Herbert Armstrong tries to explain this.
UK Study Supports Daniel Diet Daniel and his companions looked better eating more vegetables and avoiding strange meats. Has modern science confirmed this?
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? What about other peoples? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon;  When Will the End of the Age Come?;  Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Doctrine.

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