Ultraprocessed foods comprise half of the average American’s diet, and according to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are leading to Americans being obese and malnourished at the same time. Kennedy said that Americans don’t know about the health consequences of what they eat thanks to a 67-year-old government exemption allowing ingredients that are generally recognized as safe, or GRAS. Kennedy says the Food and Drug Administration of today doesn’t know how many ingredients there are in American products, but he says estimates show there could be somewhere between 4, 000 and 10, 000 ingredients. “There is no way for any American to know if a product is safe if it is ultraprocessed,” Kennedy said. Why American grocery shelves are filled with ultraprocessed foods The GRAS exemption, enacted by Congress in 1958, allows companies to independently verify the safety of their ingredients with no government oversight if those ingredients are generally recognized by experts as safe. Kennedy said, “that loophole was hijacked by the industry” and food companies flooded the market with ultraprocessed foods full of ingredients that have not undergone full government safety reviews. The Consumer Brands Association, one of the largest trade groups representing the food industry, said the GRAS process enables companies to “innovate to meet consumer demand” and that “food companies adhere to FDA’s science and risk-based evaluation of ingredients in the food supply before and after they are in the marketplace.” Food author Michael Pollan, who for decades has warned against inexpensive, factory-processed food, ties their ubiquity to longstanding federal farm subsidies. Money from the Farm Bill goes toward corn and soybean farmers. “When you hear corn and soy, you think food. This is not corn on the cob. This is commodity corn,” Pollan said. And the commodity soy is not like the edamame people snack on either; it’s a raw ingredient for processed foods and animal feed, according to Pollan. “Cheap food is the goal of all governments,” Pollan said. “If you were to remove these corn subsidies, there is concern that the price of corn would raise. And that would be a problem for the whole food industry, which, of course, is a very powerful lobby, and would be a problem for the consumer, conceivably.” In a statement, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest general farm organization in the U. S., said, “[A] healthy diet relies on a variety of nutrient-dense foods and a balance of healthy fats, carbohydrates, protein and fiber, some of which can come from shelf-stable foods.” Potential health consequences Human biology was never intended to handle ultraprocessed foods, according to former FDA head Dr. David Kessler. The products, which he describes as energy dense, highly palatable and rapidly absorbable, have “altered our metabolism and have resulted in the greatest increase in chronic disease in our history.” Kessler says ultraprocessed foods are a primary driver of type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, hypertension, abnormal lipids, fatty liver, heart attacks, stroke and heart failure. According to Kessler, manufacturers took starch and converted it into a variety of ingredients. Consumer Brands Association and American Farm Bureau Federation statements to 60 Minutes Many ultraprocessed foods “target the brain reward circuits that keep us coming back for more,” Kessler said. “They trigger overeating. They deprive us of any sense of fullness.” And it’s not “empty calories” either, Kessler said. They’re calories ending up as fat in the liver, which then migrates to other organs and can cause cardiometabolic disease, he said. Kennedy, who last month issued new dietary guidelines that, for the first time, advise against highly processed foods, said they have also contributed to obesity in America. “Seventy percent of Americans are either obese or overweight, and it’s not because they got indolent or because we became lazy or because we suddenly developed giant appetites,” Kennedy said. “It’s because we’re being given food that is low in nutrition and high in calories and it’s destroying our health.” What’s being done in response to GRAS Kennedy said the administration is “laser focused” on making whole foods affordable and accessible to every American. Kessler, who was a driving force behind bringing tobacco executives before Congress in the 1990s, says ultraprocessed foods may be an even larger public health crisis than tobacco was because they affect more people. “We changed how this country views tobacco. We need to change how this country views these ultraprocessed foods,” Kessler said. Kessler is petitioning Kennedy to outright revoke the GRAS status for dozens of processed refined carbohydrates sweeteners and starches, such as corn syrup and maltodextrin unless companies can prove they are safe and not fueling obesity. Kennedy said he intends to act on Kessler’s petition. “The questions that he’s asking are questions that [the] FDA should’ve been asking a long, long time ago,” he said. Kennedy said he’ll use gold standard science to review GRAS ingredients. In taking a stance on ultraprocessed foods, he’s also taking on the powerful industries of big agriculture and big food. Kennedy said he has faith he’ll prevail with the backing of President Trump. The president, notably, has been against regulations. “I’m not saying that we’re going to regulate ultraprocessed food,” Kennedy said. “Our job is to make sure that everybody understands what they’re getting, to have an informed public. Ten manufacturers of ultraprocessed foods are also facing a lawsuit, filed in December by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, that alleges companies knowingly engineered and marketed addictive, dangerous products while hiding the risks and causing a public health crisis.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gras-impact-on-us-food-diet-60-minutes/