8/16/2026
This is the third piece in my series about Eric Topol's book, Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity.
Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs)
One topic in the book that caught my attention is ultra-processed foods, or UPFs.
In simple terms, these are industrially formulated food products made from processed ingredients and additives rather than primarily from whole foods. They often contain combinations of added sugars, refined fats, sodium, artificial flavors and colors, emulsifiers, and other additives. Many are designed to be inexpensive, convenient, shelf-stable, and extremely palatable.
Common examples include:
sodas and energy drinks
packaged chips, cookies, and candy
mass-produced packaged breads and buns
frozen ready-to-heat meals, such as pizza and TV dinners
reconstituted meat products, such as hot dogs, fish sticks, and chicken nuggets
sweetened breakfast cereals
In Chinese, people might loosely put some of these foods under terms such as 零食、预制食品 or 垃圾食品, although these terms are not exact equivalents of “ultra-processed foods.”
What does the research show?
Topol cites a randomized controlled trial in which participants who followed an ultra-processed-food diet gained weight, while those who ate an unprocessed diet lost weight, despite the diets being matched in the amount of calories, sugar, fat, fiber, and other nutrients that were offered.
He also cites research associating higher UPF consumption with a range of health problems, including fatty liver disease, some cancers, sleep disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, and dementia.
One statistic particularly caught my attention:
A 62% increase in all-cause mortality was associated with consuming more than four servings of UPF per day.
Topol says this finding was supported by a comprehensive review of 45 studies involving approximately 75,000 women and 40,000 men followed for up to 30 years.
But perhaps the most fascinating part of the chapter is a personal experiment conducted by Topol's friend, Chris van Tulleken, a British physician-scientist and author of Ultra-Processed People.
One month on an 80% UPF diet
Van Tulleken conducted an experiment on himself. He increased the proportion of ultra-processed foods in his diet from about 20% to 80% for one month, while undergoing extensive assessments before and after the experiment, including blood tests and brain imaging.
The result was shocking:
He gained 15 pounds in one month.
He also reported major changes in brain connectivity involving regions associated with habitual behavior, reward, and appetite.
His hunger-related hormonal responses changed dramatically as well. According to Topol, one of his appetite-related measures showed a fivefold increase, while his C-reactive protein, a marker associated with systemic inflammation, doubled.
But there was another fascinating twist.
Chris and his identical twin brother, Xand, had both undergone whole-genome sequencing, and their genetic profiles included many variants associated with a predisposition to obesity.
So one might expect the two brothers to respond similarly to the same diet. They didn't.
When Xand conducted the same ultra-processed-food experiment, he gained 44 pounds—nearly three times as much as Chris.
According to Topol, this was the largest weight difference observed in the extensive twin study in the United Kingdom.
Once again, it's not all in the genes
This brings me back to one of the most interesting themes in Super Agers.
Genes matter. But they don't determine everything.
The two brothers had essentially the same genetic background, yet their responses to the same diet were dramatically different.
And this is also consistent with what Topol found in the Wellderly research we discussed in my first piece: exceptional healthy aging cannot be explained simply by having the right genes.
There are clearly complex interactions among genes, diet, environment, behavior, metabolism, and many other factors.
So what should we do?
Topol's practical advice is straightforward:
Read the labels.
When choosing packaged foods, look at the ingredient list. When there is a choice, favor products with fewer ingredients and fewer unnecessary additives, and be particularly cautious about products loaded with added sugars and highly refined ingredients.
He suggests using the Open Food Facts app when you're uncertain about a product. It provides nutritional and ingredient information for millions of food products, Open Food Facts
I find this particularly useful because the most practical lesson isn't necessarily:
“Never eat processed food.”
It's: Know what you're eating.
Will UPFs eventually be treated like cigarettes?
Topol makes a provocative prediction:
Ultra-processed foods may eventually come to be regarded much like cigarettes.
The evidence concerning UPFs is compelling enough to take seriously, but it is not identical to the decades of evidence establishing the enormous harms of tobacco.
My takeaways
1. Eat more food that looks like food. Eat less food that looks like a chemistry experiment.
2. "Fiber is the polar opposite of ultra-processed foods—it slows digestion, lessens glucose spikes, and helps reduce cholesterol."
Finally, eat less of the foods that were designed NOT with your health as their primary purpose.
