Dr. Trisha Pasricha
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
pick something where there's at least most of the ingredients are things that you can get in your kitchen and maybe there's no more than five chemicals you can't pronounce.
If that's the case, it's probably closer to being more of a real and whole food than something where most of the ingredients are words you cannot pronounce because that means it has more emulsifiers and more chemicals.
And the reason I keep bringing...
get back to that is that we've done these studies over the last 10 years that show that it is those chemicals and emulsifiers that contribute to microscopic levels of inflammation in the gut, that they change the microbiome.
And we've done those studies on a molecular level.
If you look at a population, people who tend to eat more ultra-processed foods have worse symptoms of IBS.
They have worse abdominal pain.
probably linked back to what those additives and emulsifiers are doing to the lining of the gut.
This has actually become one of the biggest conversations in the last five years is that we've had a lot more data emerge about the role of ultra-processed foods
in cancer, and then specifically in colorectal cancer and in these early onset cases which keep rising.
And so there's a number of different reasons to cut back on ultra-processed foods, one of which is that you will feel better.
And in fact, this is something I tell my patients to actually do when they're coming in with kind of chronic abdominal pain or GI symptoms that a lot of the basic tests are negative, is we say for one month, do your absolute best to cut out as much ultra-processed foods as you can and see how you feel.
I have never had a patient who didn't feel some percent better.
Like maybe it's 10, 20%, but that's a big deal considering it's just all you changed was the food.
And not only do you feel better within just a matter of weeks, but then you're right.
You have a reduced risk of things like colorectal cancer, heart disease, obesity, dementia.
And I mean, it's really important that obviously the food industry changed, but even the small choices that you make day to day can be helpful.