One of the major criticisms that people have upon coming here to the United States is the quality of the food

especially Europeans when they come to America they're oftentimes really surprised to learn just how ultra-processed the American diet actually is. Just as one example out of thousands, here are two

comparable products next to each other. On the left is Quaker Oats instant

oatmeal for the American market and on the right is Quaker Oats instant

oatmeal for the UK and comparing the ingredients between these two

reveals quite a lot because not only does the American version of that

product have a plethora of random chemicals, additives and collierings that the UK

version doesn't but even further than that if you the ingredients, you'll notice that the American version

of this product does not contain any strawberries.

Both of these two products are marketed as strawberry oatmeal, but while the UK version contains real freeze-dried fruit, the American

version contains artificial strawberry flavors.

And again, this oatmeal example is just one out of thousands of such examples.

The American market is absolutely saturated with ultra processed foods

as well as junk food.

But here's the thing, even though most people intuitively understand that processed foods aren't as good for them as whole foods

up until now, there's actually been a real lack of scientific studies to confirm that suspicion. There have been some studies which have linked ultra-processed food to poor health and some specific diseases,

but there has not been a comprehensive review

which can provide a broad assessment of all the evidence in this particular arena.

And so in order to bridge that gap, quote,

researchers carried out an umbrella review, a high-level evidence summary

of 45 distinct pooled meta-analyses from 14 review articles associating ultra-process foods

with adverse health outcomes.

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