Ultra-processed foods have been demonized for years for their supposed effect on our health, mental wellbeing and waistlines.
It has led to a rise in influencers who claim that cutting out UPFs and eating whole foods can treat everything from depression to poor sleep and brain fog.
While research has linked UPFs to obesity and other health problems, some experts argue the science is flawed because it doesn’t distinguish between items like soda and and a protein shakes, despite vast nutritional differences.
Now two online creators who ditched UPFs for 30 days have revealed their experiences with DailyMail.com — and they don’t recommend you try it at home.
Both said the experiments left them miserable, anxious and hungry — though there were some health benefits, including calming down one man’s irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Gavin Wren, a food policy expert in the UK, tried to quit ultra-processed foods (UPFs) for 30 days, but found that this gave him anxiety (Pictured above with some of the foods he could no longer eat)
To eat more whole foods, he ended up buying an entire Halibut (pictured above)
Forty-six-year-old Gavin Wren, a food policy expert from London, quit all UPFs (products with more than five ingredients), which meant scrapping some of his favorites, such as Oreos, bran flakes cereal, oat milk, protein shakes and peanut butter.
His new diet mainly consisted of fish, chickpeas, dahl, eggs, vegetables and other whole foods (those which generally have only one or two ingredients).
He said the stress of scanning the back of every package in grocery stores, spending more on food and ‘feeling anxious’ at social events in case he couldn’t find anything to eat made him completely rethink the experiment.
Mr Wren said: ‘I got increased levels of anxiety around eating out of home, social events, and, well, just buying foods too.
‘I became quite obsessive about checking ingredients listed on boxes and that’s not really very healthy of course.
‘It’s great to eat good food and be healthy, but if every social interaction becomes a bit anxiety-inducing because I don’t know what someone is going to serve me, then that is not a good thing.’
His advice after the experiment is continue eating UPFs, but in moderation.
He added: ‘If you are surviving on Diet Coke and Doritos only, then please switch.
‘But, zero ultra-processed foods, ultimately that is an extreme diet that I don’t think is healthy in today’s society.’
Meanwhile, Jon Kuhn — a 38-year-old father-of-two from Indiana — found UPFs left him feeling as angry as he was when quitting cigarettes for the first weeks.
He puts this down to being addicted to sugar.
Jon Kuhn, a father in the US, has also tried the no-UPF diet. He said in the initial days of the diet he was left furious
Before the experiment, Mr Kuhn told DailyMail.com he was quite unhealthy.
A typical breakfast would include sugary cereal such as Reese’s Puffs and he would order fast food several times a week.
He decided to quit these, however, in the hopes of losing weight and boosting his energy levels — as well as providing a role model for his kids.
According to researchers at the University of Michigan, a high sugar diet may be addictive because over time the body may become more tolerant — causing someone to overeat in order to get the same ‘sugar rush’.
Several experts have suggested that sugar withdrawal can trigger symptoms such as irritability, anxiety and mood swings.
In the first weeks of the experiment, he said it was ‘difficult’ and that he was constantly agitated and felt uneasy — with any sound or smell bothering him.
‘It is towards the end of day one, and I am getting ready to cook dinner, and I am so mad,’ he said.
‘But Alexis [my wife], god bless her, she pointed out you’re probably just detoxing from sugar, and i was like its only been a few hours, but uh… yeah. I am so mad.’
But towards the end, he found the experiment had eased his IBS, and he’s now incorporated many more whole foods into his diet.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘I thought for a long time that it was just my genetic make-up that led to me having irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) perpetually.
‘I was eating a lot of fast food, a lot of junk. I was even having Ranch thinking it was healthy because it was a “dairy item”.
‘But cleaning up my diet has really improved my health in many ways, although there is still space for some ultra-processed foods.’
UPFs may cause IBS via disrupting the microbial community in the gut, leading to inflammation causing the disease. He said he had returned to eating vegan alternative UPFs such as vegan meats.
Over the 30-day period, Mr Wren he slipped up multiple times, especially at the weekend, saying it was impossible to avoid UPFs and have a social life.
His first deviation was a few days into the experiment when he was asked whether he wanted chili sauce on his lunch and said yes, before realizing it was a processed food.
There was also an impact over weekends. On the first, he went on an 18-bar pub crawl with friends where he stopped asking venues for ingredients lists because he was ‘having fun’.
On the second, he attended a car show with his brother where the only food available was burgers and sausages.
And on the third, he went to watch a race with his girlfriend who then suggested they get ice cream.
He said at the time: ‘I don’t want to live in a world where I can’t eat [ice cream], literally.
‘If you have a social life of literally any kind, it is almost impossible to avoid ultra-processed foods.’
During the experiment, he said that overall his energy levels and mood felt much more stable and consistent throughout the day.
But he was thankful to go back to eating some UPFs, saying they ‘made it easier to exist in a city like London’.
‘It meant that I was just able to pick up food wherever I was again without having to meticulously check ingredients,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘And it just made life more relaxing when I started to eat them again.’
‘Ironically, the zero processed food diet didn’t really lead to any long-term changes to my diet. It reinforced to me how important it was to be able to eat whole foods and UPFs.
‘But when I tried to live-on UPFs that felt different. Admittedly, I did go full on straight into a McDonalds and smash a tube of Pringles — and I felt terrible after three or four days of eating like this.’
Some claim eating UPFs boosts mood, but Mr Wren said he didn’t notice any changes in that regard.
