#62 - The One About Ultra Processed Foods.

If you are looking at your social media feed, youtube or anywhere other than living under a rock , you'll have been told that Ultra Processed Foods are going to kill you.... Spoiler alert , they won't

This weeks episode we dive into UPF's how you can include them into your diet and why its just all noise and scare tactics on social media..

Remain proactive in your approach and stay ahead of the game.

Got questions? simply email or dm us with those questions

Larry IG https://www.instagram.com/larry_doyle_coaching
Daniel IG https://www.instagram.com/danieldalycoaching
Website https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie
Coaching with us https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie/1-1-premium/
Email : info@larrydoylecoaching.ie

Got questions? simply email or dm us with those questions

Larry IG https://www.instagram.com/larry_doyle_coaching
Daniel IG https://www.instagram.com/danieldalycoaching
Website https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie
Coaching with us https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie/1-1-premium/
Email : info@larrydoylecoaching.ie

Transcript

Setting The UPF Stage

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, you're listening to the Gen Pop Podcast with me, your host, Larry Doyle. Each week, I'm gonna bring in friends, guests, and experts to help enhance your health, fitness, and wellness journeys. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversations.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

The scariest thing since Freddie Krueger and Nightmare on Elm Street. Ultra processed foods. What's the crack with them, Daniel?

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yeah, I think as we were speaking about before, I think they're kind of making even the wording and the phrasing that they're using around these foods scarier and scarier. Like it started being processed foods and became ultra-processed foods. And eventually we're gonna have like um a 10-word long line of uh different words and abbreviations and stuff to try and describe your food you're eating. But I think it's it's gone to a point now where people are almost just afraid to eat, and no matter what information you're getting online, it's always going to uh criticize whatever diet you're trying to follow or whatever foods you you like, it's gonna vilify them. Um, and as we're speaking about before, you could walk into Eason's or your favourite bookshop, and every every book on the shelf is going to be um saying that every food you're eating is evil. One foot one book is gonna say you shouldn't eat fruit because it's high in sugar, and then another one's gonna say you shouldn't eat um eggs because they're high in cholesterol. And we've gotten to a point now where water isn't even good enough that they're marketing hydrogen water and all these kind of things. It's like at what point are we gonna be like at what point are we gonna have to just live off of the sunlight? But then people are gonna say you shouldn't get too much sun because then you're gonna develop skin cancer. And I don't know why people just can't let other people just live at the end of the day.

Fear Marketing And Fake Problems

Dose Matters, Not Food Purity

Calories, Context, And McDonald’s

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Why can't you just marketing 101? It's create a problem, make something sound incredibly scary, threatening to your well-being, your livelihood, your life, your kids, health, your well-being, whatever it might be, and then insert solution here. And of course, I can sell you that product. So it's like create a problem that isn't a problem, sell them a solution for that problem that isn't a problem, and charge them handsomely for it. And this you'll see it all the time, whether it's someone popping up in a little or alley, you know, uh uh middle aisle talking about whatever ultra-processed food that's gonna kill you. Oh, by the way, buy my ebook, buy my course, buy my whatever. Okay, water is gonna kill you, buy my hydrogen water, even though water already already has hydrogen in it, uh, you know, whatever the thing is. We're trying to scare monger, like do we, or are we saying ultra-processed foods, you know, we should eat all of them and it should be a part of all of our diets? I think it should be probably a part of most people's diets. I think the dose uh the dose makes the poison when it comes to it. That if you're having, you know, 90% of your food are ultra processed, yes, we should probably reduce that. Yes, you'll probably improve your gut health, yes, you'll probably improve your mental clarity, your testosterone production, your whatever insert thing here. But if we have like 10 to 15, maybe 20% of our food been somewhat processed and a little bit ultra processed, we are gonna be absolutely fine. Like you've seen any amount of influencers and YouTubers and everyone over the years, it's like I ate only sugar for a week and lost five pounds. I ate only ultra-processed foods and lost five pounds. Like people are gonna be coming to us, obviously, for you know, fat loss and health gain. You can still improve your health by eating only McDonald's. If you're coming from a position of being in severely bad health prior to that, and you're eating an incredible amount of calories, if you put someone on a calorie-controlled McDonald's-only diet, they're gonna lose fat. They'll probably drop some inflammation and their health markers will improve. Is that a way to live long term? No, it's not. Uh, should we promote that to people? No, we shouldn't. But at the same point, calories matter most. And if you have like some holier than thou food that's been like, you know, right, let's peel it back. Actually, all food is processed before we even go there as well, too, because we're not like scraping the mud off it and putting it in our mouth on our plate, right? But at the same point, if it's handpicked by virgin nuns off the southeast facing slope of some Italian olive vineyard, whatever it might be, and it's like the greatest health food ever, it's still going to contain calories and you can still get fat from consuming it, and you can still increase your inflammation from consuming it as well, too. So it's to create an awareness. Um, yes, that some foods are not quite optimal for our health and longevity and well-being, but if they're in X amount of dose, if we're consuming too much of our food, too much calories from them. Should we include them into our intake? Most likely. So, what do you see? You see clients coming in all the time, they're afraid of their life to eat a certain product because someone has said something about it, right? How do we manage that? How do we kind of promote a healthier approach to our health and fitness in foods?

Protein Products And Practicality

Super Size Me And Missing Context

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I think the biggest thing we've seen at the moment is like people coming with like protein products, and all of a sudden they're come under fire. It's like you shouldn't eat protein yogurts because they're again ultra-processed, and we'll have clients coming to us that are looking to actively increase their protein intake, but it's like, what are they supposed to do? Eat four chicken breasts a day and just walk around with a chicken breast in their pocket. It's like, who's that gonna actually help? And I always kind of look at these things from right, where have you been in the past in terms of what your eating habits were like? It's like, well, usually for like lunch, I used to have like a takeaway or I used to have like a burger and chips. It's like, well, how can you honestly say that having a protein yogurt alongside some fruit is actually worse for you than eating McDonald's every single day? And again, that's not us saying that like eating McDonald's every single day is inherently bad for you because we have to take everything into context of the diet as a whole. But people are always going to look at like the the outlaws, or they're always gonna look at the extremes, like they're gonna look at I'm not sure what I came out, but that movie Um Super Size Me when that came out that like the guy eating the McDonald's, it's like he put on all this weight, his blood markers went to shit. It's like when you look into it, the guy was actually also uh an alcoholic and he never really changed his drinking habits then. So it's like, what do we say is do we say it's the McDonald's or is it the alcohol or is it a combination of both, or is it the sedentary lifestyle? It's like because again, as you've said already, that there are people out there that have the opposite results, that they eat nothing but ice cream, or they eat nothing but uh like the Twinkie diet guy that like they lose weight, they improve their blood markers, their cholesterol actually is improved. So it's like how can you argue saying that these foods in isolation are bad when you have to look at everything in um in context of your whole lifestyle? And the one thing I'm always gonna look at is what is health at the end of the day? Because like health for one person could be completely different to health than another person, because some people they might look at a person saying, Yeah, they have a six-pack, that's healthy. That is what health looks like. Whereas another person could say, No, your blood markers are what are what indicate how healthy you are, but you could also be that both could be in shit. You could like have abs, but your health markers are in in the absolute um pits. So it's like I always kind of laugh to a degree at the person walking around different supermarkets or a person vilifying certain foods, it's like, but but maybe you're not the person that can say what health is. Because like if you're a person that like you're not sleeping too well, you're not managing stress on these things, I would say that's far uh worse for your health than any protein product is going to be, or any protein yogurt is going to be your saying that you shouldn't have this fucking peanut spread over this peanut butter. It's like it's it's ridiculous at the end of the day.

What Is Health, Really

Guilt, Families, And Food Shame

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Yeah, and I we see it all the time. It's like people coming in, it's like, oh, I've tried to improve my my protein intake, or I've tried to get some food into the kids, and now all of a sudden, you know, influencer X or Y or YouTuber or Podcaster said I shouldn't do it. Now all of a sudden I'm laden with guilt uh because I've fed my family this bad food. Am I harming them? And now all of a sudden their decision process has gone through the roof because they don't know what to actually feed their family or the kids. And this is like not even like from a health or fitness point of view, it's like stemming over into the family life and the family meals that people are having. And like personally, I'll give my kids protein yogurts, not because they're protein in it, because they like the fucking taste and flavor of them. Kids can be the most finicky and like fussy people in the world. Like you give them a meal one day and it's the greatest thing, you give them the same thing the next day and they hate it and they throw it back at you. So, like, sometimes you just have to bend the rules a little bit that it's gonna be a fish finger, it's gonna be a waffler, it's gotta be some red sauce or whatever that they have, and they'll enjoy it and we get on with it and they're all okay. But it's like we get people in now, they're like feeling guilty, ashamed, or whatever it might be that they've fed their family this ultra-processed food and they think they're a bigger piece of shit than that food is. And it's like that's not the case, right? And we need to create a better narrative around these things. And obviously, listen, again, it's coming from a marketing position, it's coming from a place of creating this fear-mongering, and oh, by the way, we'll solve all your problems. If you buy our supplement or if you buy our product, or if you buy our course, and now you're gonna be set free from the shackles of shame and you're gonna like vastly improve your health and wellness. Like ultimately, what they're doing is like reducing people's caloric intake and they're putting them in a better position, their health is improving. It's not because it was less ultra-processed foods. Potentially, yes, there's more caloric load from those ultra-processed foods, and yes, they're gonna reduce the caloric burden on the body, and they're gonna be in an energy uh deficit, and now of a sudden they're gonna lose some body fat. But we can also create the exact same outcome without the crazy approach and allow people to actually enjoy the foods that they want, not remove them from social situations or uh engaging in events or parties or whatever it might be that they want to have a drink or they want to have some food or some finger food that's deep right, whatever it might be. Because that's creating monsters across the board when we're like, you know, vilifying these food groups and like removing them completely. Now people can't enjoy events, they feel guilty feeding their family, they're doing whatever, and ultimately it just leads them to say, fuck this, I'm just gonna eat whatever I want now because I can't stick to anything and they're just gonna go YOLO. And this is a bigger problem and it casts a far bigger net across the board, you know. And if we've got you know, mums, dads, whoever that are going in, and now they're talking about these ultra-processed foods and like ex-food is bad because they heard influencer, why are you saying it? Well, now that like transfers onto their kids or their family or their office, and now all of a sudden it's cast in a wider net, and there's this like infestation of really bad information that's been thrown across the board, and that's just not leading to anything positive in the long term. Uh, there's always going to be a bit of hoo-ha and rah-rah in the comment section of people supporting these and say, Yeah, this changed my life and I've never felt better because of that. But ultimately, they've just put some element of control in around their calories or they've started exercising more. And again, there's no context to it. Like you said, with the guy eating the supersize me with McDonald's, he was like an alcoholic in the background. So, like, there's no context given to that. It's just kind of assumed that McDonald's was the villain there with the whole thing. So, again, like when people start to make more positive changes with their um caloric intake or their food choices, now all of a sudden they might start engaging in a more exercise activity. Was it actually the exercise and activity that gave them the major benefits from their well-being and lifestyle changing and dramatically improving? Probably was, in conjunction with the lifestyle changes and the nutrition uh changes as well. So, like there's a much bigger picture with this whole thing that we need to be more aware of. Um, that it's not just ultimately only the ultra-processed foods. Um, yes, I think we should be more aware of what we're consuming, and yes, I think we should probably have like that 80-20 approach, but also be okay to bend the rules and go 70-30 at times or 50-50, whatever it might be, because you know, the grand scheme, but we still need to be able to enjoy the foods we're doing. If we're creating less stress around the environment that we're in, you're gonna see actually a better outcome from your overall gut health as well, too, because stress plays a massive role in good health. So if we're creating and demonizing all these food groups, now we're creating more stress. Now we're creating a bigger digestive burden, a bigger digestive problem. People are having worse issues. Uh so again, like there's there's a far bigger net to be cast. So, your experience with ultra-processed foods, uh, is it something you factor in, Daniel? Is it something that you enjoy often? Is it what what do you think with it?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Um well, I slammed the Gitoba Bin and Jerry's on Sunday night, so it's it's definitely something that I I would include in my diet. Yeah, and like I think the the funny thing about these reels and and all this kind of stuff is I think they're actually making people eat more processed foods than anything because what they're doing is they're saying you should not eat any of these foods, these are terrible for you, they're harmful to your health. People are gonna get so scared of them that, as you said before, that like Monday to Friday they're gonna be like quote unquote good, as they always say, they're not gonna eat them, but because that might that one food might have been what I like to call their stay sane food, that that's what kind of keeps them on track. Now that they've removed it, once the weekend comes around and their routine completely changes or stress finally just dumps on top of them, that's when they're gonna turn to these foods, and they're not gonna just have one piece of chocolate, they're gonna eat the chocolate and then reach into the cupboard and see what else is there, and it they don't give a shit if it's ultra-processed foods or if it's being vilified online, it's like it's serving a purpose for them, it's making them feel more comfortable, it's it's helping them. And obviously, we can say that that's not the best eating practice, but like I would argue that them having small little bits every single day is always going to beat them piling it on Saturday and Sunday. Um, but like the thing is, even if you look at like alcohol, like the World Health Organization has said that like there is no such thing as a safe level of alcohol. But like, I'm not gonna tell someone like if they're telling me they're gonna go for a couple pints at the weekend, they're not gonna tell them it's like you do know that that actually is not healthy at all, that like they're stating that like it doesn't matter how much alcohol you drink, that like you're still increasing your risks of um developing cancer. It's like, yeah, but like this person is going out for four pints, five pints at the weekend with their friends, it's their social activity for the week. That's probably gonna have more better um more better outcomes in their health than if they didn't go out. So I would actually argue that in that instance drinking alcohol is actually healthier than not drinking alcohol. And I know you could at the same time argue say, but couldn't they go out and drink non-alcoholic versions, or couldn't they go out and drink water or like Dye Coke or Coke's ear or whatnot? It's like, but if the person genuinely likes drinking alcohol and it helps them to relax and they can still get up the following morning and do what they need to do, who'd who can they argue with that realistically?

Sustainable Balance Beats All‑or‑Nothing

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Look at the averages over the week, they had a couple of pints on you know a couple of nights or one night and that was it. But like that individual might have been sat in front of their uh laptop or computer or screen in their box room for like 60 hours that week and not had one single interaction with a human because they were dealing with I don't know, account entries or data entries or whatever the hell they're they're dealing with air, whatever it might be. They are going out of their mind and absolutely craving that. And who are we to say, all right, you should actually stay in more, don't go out, don't enjoy yourself, don't have any social interaction? Because like it's a huge element that we can actually be inclusive with that as well, too. And again, right, okay, if you're out every night of the week and you're on the pace, okay, we need to peel it back in. Yes, 100%. Um, but at the same point, having that like you know, hashtag balance, I think it's absolutely key for long-term health because again, being able to go out and have those conversations in an environment where you're getting something off your chest or you're telling someone about how you feel, or if you're just engaging in just chatting shit and having a crack, it's like it's so much more valuable. Um, and again, this is where we'll see, you know, we we tell people to go out and have a meal out over the weekend or make sure they include, like, you know, just don't track over the weekend. I want you to go out and have a date night and go chill out. The next thing to come back in on Monday morning, Larry, I had pizza over the weekend, but my weight's actually down. What's going on? It's like, well, you actually chill the fuck out for a while. We we gave you an environment that's conducive to just low stress, that's like high relaxation. Yeah, if we do it all the time, you're not going to keep losing weight in a pizza diet. But at the same point, there was an element of just you switched off the busy brain, and this was like really important. And yes, you had some ultra-processed foods, but at the same point, you had some ultra-relaxation at the same point and switched off the busy brain, and you were actually able to factor it in. And now you're feeling way better going into the next week. Everything is cool, you've harbored some positive relationships outside of just nutrition with family members or loved ones or whatever, and it casts a far wider net, the whole scheme with nutrition than just someone in an aisle in Tesco or Little or Ali or wherever it might be, and just demonizing some food. So again, it's like to be aware of like be aware of what we're consuming with our eyes and how it's impacting what we consume with our mouths and hands, and then how we're impacting our long-term actual health. Yes, it might reduce your inflammation markers by a tiny amount with that one processed food been removed, but what else is it actually reducing long term in terms of your social life, in terms of your um digestive health, in terms of your stress markers, in terms of whatever else as well, too, right? So it's like really, really, really key that we keep these things included into our intake. Um with is there any foods that you would suggest you know people should absolutely avoid? Like, is there anything you say is like completely off the charts? Like, do not ever touch this, or like what what's your experience there with clients and like discussion around foods there too?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Avocado. Uh don't eat avocado because it it genuinely tastes like soap, and I don't believe people to say they like it. Genuinely don't like it. Um, but all jokes aside, I think the only food you genuinely shouldn't eat is the food you don't like. If you don't like it, don't eat it. And again, it doesn't matter how health-promoting it is, if you don't like it, you're good you could follow that approach for a couple of days, but you're just gonna fall off the wagon. That's when you again you're gonna start binging on all the foods you're told not to eat. So the one food you should probably keep off the list is the foods you just don't like at the end of the day. Um, and again, like we have to keep going back to this. Like, that's not us saying that you should just it's a free-for-all, you can eat whatever you want. We still want to have like that 80-20 or whatever number and ratio you want to put on things, like we still want you to kind of build up the foundations of your diet on food, vegetable, lean protein and all that, but still allow yourself to have these foods, you know, frequently, like every day or every second day, whatever way you want to include it in there.

Weekday Restriction, Weekend Blowouts

Alcohol, Social Health, And Trade‑offs

SPEAKER_02 18:20

But like you should not feel like you have to remove complete food groups or remove uh any foods that you know that you would consider what I call their stay-sane foods, because again, at the end of the day, if you can keep in like a small bar of chocolate every single day, it's like it's gonna have far better health outcomes and like not remove it and feel guilty about having a small piece is gonna have like any decision we should make about food or like the the choices that we're making for like a long-term approach or what's what you're trying to make as a long-term approach, can you actually see yourself doing that for more than one week or more than a day or more than two days or more than six months? Because like, okay, with the guy with the timber board and he's eating all his carnivore foods off it, that's amazing. He looks jacked, he looks shredded, he's saying about how high his testosterone and how good his cholesterol is, and it's never been better. But at the same point, like that mightn't appeal to you. It mate, cool, go full liver king on it if you want to, but only if it makes you actually feel better and you enjoy it. If it doesn't lead to better outcomes for you, if you don't enjoy it and you can't actually sustain it and it doesn't lead to better outcomes, don't do it, regardless of how good it may seem on the packaging. Now, obviously, if you've got lactose intolerance, don't go slamming a 99 ice cream because you're gonna end up shitting yourself. If you've got like bad uh celiac and like you're gonna have like a ton of gluten, you probably should avoid it. If you've got some autoimmune issues, if you've got some high inflammatory remarkers, uh markers, you should probably avoid those foods that are gonna really piss it off because you've got a medical concern, you've got dietary requirements that are gonna need a different approach. But when we're talking to the other 99% of people, it's like just include the foods you like in the foods that the foods you like in the foods that like you. It's a really simple approach because now you can create a relationship with food that's really good. You're not demonizing any food groups. You understand that calories matter, that we can keep an element of balance, that it should be in that insert ratio number here of 80, 20, 70, 30, 90, 10, whatever it might be. And now all of a sudden you'll just feel freedom around food and you'll feel that like all of a sudden that it's just noise that people are creating. You'll start to kind of separate somebody's emotion from it and be like, well, that's just nonsense, what that person's actually talking about. Because like I actually enjoy having a packet of crisps on the weekend with a glass of wine, and fuck them, I'm gonna keep having this in because it actually makes me feel sane and I enjoy it and I like it, and it keeps me within my calories because all of a sudden I don't want to blow out a family share pack and eat multiple uh bars of chocolate then thereafter with a binge and a blowout. So ultimately, it's like making choices that are in line with the long-term outcomes that you want, and obviously paying attention to the rest of the environmental factors and relationship factors with that, with yourself, your nutrition, with your loved ones as well, too, and how it's going to have a greater impact across the board. Um, I think we've covered a lot on this one. I think it's gonna be quite beneficial. Like we could have just said, hey, eat some food, but like you know, eat the food you like or have a packet of crisps. It's like to give a bit of context to it all, like, yes, we should include these foods, but I think there's a lot of value and a lot of good takeaways for people to have here, pardon the pun with that. Um, any leave-in notes that you would like to sign off with on this one, Daniel, from the idea of ultra-processed foods.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

I think just take everything with a pinch of salt, and that's not us telling telling you that salt is bad for you, by the way. Um, but I can guarantee you, and I bet you my left nut, if I can even say that, that'll make us banned off fucking Spotify. That all of these people that are making these reels and all of these people that are promoting this and that, they're not following that advice 100%. Because like if these people are travelling all over the country giving advice here and giving talks there and whatnot, and doing all these things, like they're relying on they're relying on uh going to service stations, they're relying on like easy to grab food on the go. And I'm reluctant to believe that these people are carrying around Tupperware boxes with them all the time. I'm reluctant to believe that like anyone who's giving out advice on Instagram is following exactly everything they say to a T. And I think that's the main takeaway to think is everything you're looking at online, take it every take everything with a pinch of salt because everything needs to be polished up when it's put online because we're always trying to make ourselves out and put ourselves in the best light because we're we're when you put something online, you're just trying to sell something at the end of the day, either that's a product or it's yourself. So we're always trying to present to us as if we're high and mighty when we're not, because we're human at the end of the day, we all have flaws, we all have bad days, good days, whatnot. And like the worrying thing about it to me is people that are coming from not really much of a like a qualified background, that they're the ones that are actually being listened to more than anything, they're the ones that have a like a louder voice, and it's the people then who actually do have qualified opinions and actually who can actually back up all of their claims, they're the ones that are being pushed back down, they're the ones that are kind of being vilified. It's like, how dare you call out this other person? It's like, well, if a person is out there calling out food products and calling out entire companies, I'm pretty sure that a person is qualified to call out an individual can do so, and I think they're well within their rights to do so. So I think use your best judgment when it comes to all these things because sometimes I can kind of think that they're kind of questioning our own intelligence if they need to tell us that like a cereal bar contains a lot of sugar, because I'm pretty sure we all knew that in the first place, and I'm pretty sure like we've been told from a young age, it's like eat your fruit and vegetables. It's like why can't we just follow the basics and then just enjoy ourselves as well?

Stress, Relaxation, And Weight

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Do what Mammy told you. I think it always comes back to like Irish mummies are always right. Um, but yeah, when it comes to this, it's like give yourself reassurance that you're not a dumbass, right? You you're far more intelligent than you will give yourself credit for. Um, it's to allow yourself to actually step back, remove the emotion, remove the clickbait title, the you know, the hook, the line that this is going to kill you, and actually say, Is this actually bad for me? Am I having a problem with this food? Am I getting up in the middle of the night and smashing 15 at ease and do I feel like all my health markers are a sink the following day? You know, actually just allow yourself to step back and say, Does this actually need to be something I need to factor in and you know, really give a lot of my time and attention to? More than likely it's not, and more than likely you will feel okay with including some of it within your intake. Uh, we're probably gonna have loads of DMs, probably have a little bit of hate from this one. I don't know, whatever, I don't really care. But feel free, I'm open for a conversation. I'm not gonna come back and say, screw you. If anyone wants to discuss any of these things further with this, just shoot us an email, shoot us a DM. I'm open to discussion on anything all the time with this. I'm not coming from a pedestal to say, you know, we're the greatest or we're the only people to have the best method in the world. Um, thankfully, we have served a lot of people and put them in a very good position with their health and fitness and their fellows and composition goals. Uh, but I'm always open to discussion on it. Um feel free to reach out and touch base with us at any point. I'm happy with this one, Daniel. We'll cover lots on it. Uh, I think there's going to be a lot of good positive takeaways, obviously, people can implement with their own strategies going forward. I'm personally going to have some processed food this evening. I'm going to enjoy it. My kids will enjoy it too. Until the next one.