So, apparently, some smart folks have figured out that your blood and pee can spill the beans on what you eat. Yeah, you heard me right! An article in PLOS Medicine spilled the tea on how molecules in your bodily fluids can rat you out if you’ve been chowing down on too much ultra-processed junk. And let’s be real, who hasn’t indulged in some factory-made snacks or sweetened yogurts every now and then?
The study, led by Erikka Loftfield and her crew at the US National Cancer Institute, looked at over 700 peeps aged 50-74 to see how much of their diet came from ultra-processed foods. These are the kind of foods that are made in a lab with all sorts of funky additives that you won’t find in your grandma’s cooking. Think packaged snacks, factory-made bread, and all that jazz. The researchers found that on average, half of the participants’ energy intake came from ultra-processed foods, but the numbers varied from person to person. Some were clocking in at 12%, while others were hitting a whopping 82%.
But here’s where it gets juicy. The researchers dug into the blood and urine samples of these participants and found some interesting stuff. Folks who were downing a lot of ultra-processed foods were more likely to have metabolites linked to type-2 diabetes hanging out in their bodily fluids. And get this, some of them even had molecules from food packaging in their pee! Ew, right? Anyway, they also found fewer metabolites from fresh fruits and veggies in these ultra-processed food fans. So, basically, your body spills the tea on what you’re eating, whether you like it or not.
Now, the researchers wanted to see if they could use these sneaky metabolites to predict if someone was munching on a lot of ultra-processed foods. So, they did a little experiment on 20 brave souls who were asked to switch between a diet full of ultra-processed foods and one without. And guess what? By looking at the metabolites in their blood and urine, the researchers could tell which diet the participants were on. Pretty nifty, right? Loftfield and her team are now itching to test this method on a wider range of folks with more diverse diets. They also want to see if this can help unravel the link between ultra-processed foods and cancer. Who knew your bodily fluids could be so revealing, huh?
