Episode 412: Dr. Mark Hyman: How Ultra-Processed Foods Are Fueling America's Obesity Epidemic
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What is the impact of ultra-processed foods on weight gain?
The NIH study by Kevin Hall looked at this very carefully, and he did what we call a crossover trial, which is one of the best types of study designs, where he took the same people, gave them a diet, and then let them have a break, call a washout period, and then give them another diet for a few weeks, and then measure what happened. First part of the diet was eating real food. Matched for protein, fat, carbs, calories. Then they gave them ultra-processed food. then they can eat whatever they want. Eat whatever you want, eat as much as you want, there's no restrictions. When they were eating ultra-processed food, they ate 500 calories more a day because their biology was dysregulated. Kids who are iron deficient will eat dirt.
The body is going to crave more food and want more food because it's looking for nutrients, but we're looking for love in all the wrong places, right? And so what happened is that you get dysregulated. I mean, think about that. 500 calories a day in a week is 3,500 calories. That's a pound of weight gain. if you don't offset it with exercise. In a year, that's 52 pounds of weight gain if you eat ultra-processed food. Why is America the fattest country in the world? Like, we have 75% of us that are overweight, 42% are obese. It's increased, you know, fourfold since I was born. And You've seen diabetes increase 400%. I mean, in the last 30 years, it's insane.
Why is America facing an obesity crisis?
And, you know, the metabolic dysfunction, even if you're not overweight, because you could be skinny fat. In other words, you look thin, but you're actually fat on the inside.
Right, your percentage is fat.
Yeah, your body fat, where the fat is, if it's in your belly, visceral fat. That's 93.2% of Americans have metabolic dysfunction. That means that 6.8% of us are healthy. And what does that mean? That 93.2% has either high blood sugar, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, all, by the way, caused by too much starch and sugar in our ultra processed diet, or they've had a heart attack or stroke, or they're overweight.
What are the economic costs of chronic diseases in the U.S.?
Yeah, that is unbelievable.
Yeah, it's unbelievable. And so we're killing ourselves, and it's the costs are staggering. I mean, the government, the U.S. government pays 40% of the national health care bill, which is now $4.9 trillion. Probably a good $2 trillion of that is totally preventable. And it's now being added to our federal deficit every year. And imagine what that $2 trillion can do for the economy, what we could do with social programs, how we could improve our infrastructure, how we could improve so many innovation, how we could fund different kinds of research. I mean, we're wasting that money. And most people don't realize that. You know, it's one out of every three taxpayer dollars is for health care.
What I find to be unbelievable is that everyone seems to look for these quick fad diets or quick fixes, but yet what you're saying is pretty basic, right? It's the same things that if they watch what they eat, quality of the food, inflammation. It's not that hard. It's not that hard, but yet people are trying to over, or they're overwhelmed with like all this like noise, you know?
Are fad diets effective compared to real food?
The other thing I wanted to ask you about Ozempic or any of these, or Govees or whatever, can your body acclimate over time anyway? And so you end up even eating what you ate before you even started to eat?
Sometimes. These drugs affect people differently. I had a patient who, I didn't prescribe it, but he was telling me he lost, you know, he did Ozempic for six months. He lost two pounds. It didn't really make him feel great. He had all these side effects. He switched over to what I told him to do. He lost 60 pounds and he's reversed his diabetes and, you know, he's on his way back to full health.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the impact of ultra-processed foods on weight gain?
0:30–1:52
2
Why is America facing an obesity crisis?
1:52–2:30
3
What are the economic costs of chronic diseases in the U.S.?
2:30–3:33
4
Are fad diets effective compared to real food?
3:33–4:34
5
How do medications like Ozempic work for weight loss?
4:34–5:17
6
What is the importance of continuing to see patients?
5:17–9:27
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