How Ultra-Processed Foods Could Cause Disease: Packaging Chemicals

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What are the human health effects of the mineral oils, phthalates, and bisphenols leaching from packaging materials into processed foods?

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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

Looking at a food label, we can see that many ultra-processed foods are high in salt, sugar, and calories, and low in nutrition, and may contain food additives with questionable safety. Missing from the label are contaminants from processing that I talked about in my last video, as well as contaminants that migrate into the food from the packaging materials: bisphenols, like BPA; plastics compounds, like phthalates; and microplastics, as well as mineral oils.

Evidently, the mineral oils come from the printing inks from recycled newspapers used in paperboard packaging, which can then migrate into the food and then accumulate in human tissues to levels that have been found to be harmful in a certain strain of rats. But the relevance to humans has been questioned, since apparently we can’t even extrapolate the results from that strain of rats to another strain of rats.

Plastic materials that contact our food may contain thousands of different molecules, in which more than 300 have been considered as potentially risky––including phthalates, which, along with bisphenols, may have hormone-modulating effects. Have people switch from packaged foods to fresh foods for even just a few days, and evidence of exposure to the measured bisphenol and phthalate, based on urine samples, drops significantly––though packaging is certainly not limited to ultra-processed foods.

If we look at the association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and how many phthalates and bisphenols are flowing through our system, researchers found higher levels of four phthalates and BPF associated with higher consumption of ultra-processed foods. But there was a lack of association with the most common ones, DEHP and BPA, and an inverse association for BPS––meaning the more ultra-processed one’s diet, the lower the exposure. This makes sense, since in the food supply, BPS has only been found in meat, most of which is considered minimally processed, with two exceptions. Basically, with BPA, which is used to line cans, only about half these products are ultra-processed, compared to moderately processed. And in terms of phthalates and our diet, the highest levels of DEHP per serving were found in poultry.

So, if we look at dietary intake and phthalate body burden, DEHP levels were associated with the consumption of poultry, presumably most of which was minimally processed. That helps explain why eating vegetarian for a few days can also lead to significant decreases in phthalate exposure, though presumably, they also cut down on ultra-processed foods during this time.

Although phthalates are best known as hormone disrupters, with potential testicular toxicity, ovarian toxicity, and endometriosis, there’s also concern about kidney toxicity, nerve damage, liver damage, and heart damage.

Exposure to BPA, the best-studied bisphenol, is associated with congenital abnormalities, diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. At first, we didn’t think the migration of BPA into foods was high enough to exceed safety levels, but then––oopsie––we realized that there is significant evidence of potential harm from levels of BPA in foods, well below current regulations and well below levels consumers have been regularly exposed to. Yet we continue to produce millions of tons of the stuff. So it’s no surprise that nearly 90% of us have trace levels of the stuff flowing through us on a day-to-day basis. But it depends on what we eat. Randomize people to eat a serving of canned soup every day for five days, and see a 1000% rise in BPA levels compared to eating soup every day made from fresh ingredients. In this case, the soup was ultra-processed, but it’s more about what the cans were lined with. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of brands that do not use BPA in their canned goods.

So yes, we can look for BPA-free on the label, just like we can check labels to see if some ultra-processed product is low in added sugars, salt, and saturated fat. And we can also scan the ingredients list for additives we now know may be harmful. But do you see the problem? Many were considered harmless until they weren’t, like the BPA and aspartame stories, and the artificial colors and flavors that were in the food supply for decades before they were banned.

Remember when the food industry thought partially-hydrogenated oils were a good idea? Let’s replace saturated fats with trans fats. Although many countries now restrict their use, trans fats may continue to kill up to half a million people around the world each year. Of course, excess saturated fat is probably also killing hundreds of thousands a year, but the point is that trans fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil killed people for decades before there were any limits on it. The FDA didn’t ban trans fats until more than 25 years after the first solid evidence emerged that it increased the risk of heart disease. From the time we knew until the time it was banned, every one of those years, trans fats were killing up to 50,000 Americans each year. That’s quite the death toll that can be laid at the feet of the ultra-processed food industry.

But they originally thought it was safe! That’s the problem. Any time some chemical company comes up with a new preservative or sweetener or artificial color, we have no idea how it will eventually turn out. So you can start to see the value of this ultra-processed food concept, where an entire category of products is essentially presumed guilty until proven innocent. That drives the food industry crazy, but look at its track record; look at the trail of bodies it’s left behind.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

Looking at a food label, we can see that many ultra-processed foods are high in salt, sugar, and calories, and low in nutrition, and may contain food additives with questionable safety. Missing from the label are contaminants from processing that I talked about in my last video, as well as contaminants that migrate into the food from the packaging materials: bisphenols, like BPA; plastics compounds, like phthalates; and microplastics, as well as mineral oils.

Evidently, the mineral oils come from the printing inks from recycled newspapers used in paperboard packaging, which can then migrate into the food and then accumulate in human tissues to levels that have been found to be harmful in a certain strain of rats. But the relevance to humans has been questioned, since apparently we can’t even extrapolate the results from that strain of rats to another strain of rats.

Plastic materials that contact our food may contain thousands of different molecules, in which more than 300 have been considered as potentially risky––including phthalates, which, along with bisphenols, may have hormone-modulating effects. Have people switch from packaged foods to fresh foods for even just a few days, and evidence of exposure to the measured bisphenol and phthalate, based on urine samples, drops significantly––though packaging is certainly not limited to ultra-processed foods.

If we look at the association between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and how many phthalates and bisphenols are flowing through our system, researchers found higher levels of four phthalates and BPF associated with higher consumption of ultra-processed foods. But there was a lack of association with the most common ones, DEHP and BPA, and an inverse association for BPS––meaning the more ultra-processed one’s diet, the lower the exposure. This makes sense, since in the food supply, BPS has only been found in meat, most of which is considered minimally processed, with two exceptions. Basically, with BPA, which is used to line cans, only about half these products are ultra-processed, compared to moderately processed. And in terms of phthalates and our diet, the highest levels of DEHP per serving were found in poultry.

So, if we look at dietary intake and phthalate body burden, DEHP levels were associated with the consumption of poultry, presumably most of which was minimally processed. That helps explain why eating vegetarian for a few days can also lead to significant decreases in phthalate exposure, though presumably, they also cut down on ultra-processed foods during this time.

Although phthalates are best known as hormone disrupters, with potential testicular toxicity, ovarian toxicity, and endometriosis, there’s also concern about kidney toxicity, nerve damage, liver damage, and heart damage.

Exposure to BPA, the best-studied bisphenol, is associated with congenital abnormalities, diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. At first, we didn’t think the migration of BPA into foods was high enough to exceed safety levels, but then––oopsie––we realized that there is significant evidence of potential harm from levels of BPA in foods, well below current regulations and well below levels consumers have been regularly exposed to. Yet we continue to produce millions of tons of the stuff. So it’s no surprise that nearly 90% of us have trace levels of the stuff flowing through us on a day-to-day basis. But it depends on what we eat. Randomize people to eat a serving of canned soup every day for five days, and see a 1000% rise in BPA levels compared to eating soup every day made from fresh ingredients. In this case, the soup was ultra-processed, but it’s more about what the cans were lined with. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of brands that do not use BPA in their canned goods.

So yes, we can look for BPA-free on the label, just like we can check labels to see if some ultra-processed product is low in added sugars, salt, and saturated fat. And we can also scan the ingredients list for additives we now know may be harmful. But do you see the problem? Many were considered harmless until they weren’t, like the BPA and aspartame stories, and the artificial colors and flavors that were in the food supply for decades before they were banned.

Remember when the food industry thought partially-hydrogenated oils were a good idea? Let’s replace saturated fats with trans fats. Although many countries now restrict their use, trans fats may continue to kill up to half a million people around the world each year. Of course, excess saturated fat is probably also killing hundreds of thousands a year, but the point is that trans fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil killed people for decades before there were any limits on it. The FDA didn’t ban trans fats until more than 25 years after the first solid evidence emerged that it increased the risk of heart disease. From the time we knew until the time it was banned, every one of those years, trans fats were killing up to 50,000 Americans each year. That’s quite the death toll that can be laid at the feet of the ultra-processed food industry.

But they originally thought it was safe! That’s the problem. Any time some chemical company comes up with a new preservative or sweetener or artificial color, we have no idea how it will eventually turn out. So you can start to see the value of this ultra-processed food concept, where an entire category of products is essentially presumed guilty until proven innocent. That drives the food industry crazy, but look at its track record; look at the trail of bodies it’s left behind.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Doctor's Note

If you missed the previous videos in this series, check out: 

Stay tuned for the rest of this extended video series on ultra-processed foods, coming out over the next several months.

If you don’t want to wait for each video to be released, we’ve compiled all the information into a brand-new book, Ultra-Processed Foods: Concerns, Controversies, and Exceptions.

If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.

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