Foods like white bread, soda, and packaged snacks cause rapid spikes in blood sugar, which can mess up your body’s ability to manage energy and insulin over time.

Chronic consumption of ultra-processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and added sugars drives systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia, prompting maladaptive dietary counter-reactions.

Consumption of hyper-palatable processed foods, even at matched meal frequency, leads to adverse metabolic outcomes (e.g., elevated insulin, insulin resistance, increased adiposity) compared to whole, unprocessed foods.

Foods like cookies, chips, and sugary cereals are designed to be eaten quickly and taste super good, so people eat more before feeling full than they do with whole foods like fruits or beans.

Eating lots of ultra-processed foods is linked to having several chronic diseases at once, feeling weaker, living with less quality of life, and having long-lasting body damage — especially in older people.

People who eat a lot of highly processed foods like chips, sugary snacks, and frozen meals tend to eat more calories and gain more weight than those who eat whole foods, even when they’re not trying to.