The Metabolic Matrix: Re-engineering ultraprocessed foods to feed the gut, protect the liver, and support the brain

by | Apr 4, 2023 | Uncategorized

OK, everyone! Welcome to Food 3.0. I’m not a purist; I’m a practicalist. As much as I hate processed food (and I do) for all the reasons you know, I also know it’s not going away. And I’m not even sure we WANT it to go away because we have to feed 10 billion people by 2050, and we don’t have enough land or ocean to be able to grow real food for that many. So it’s either processed food or famine.
 
We can’t afford to get rid of it, but we can reduce its metabolic risk. For the past three years, a Scientific Advisory Team composed of Tim Harlan (head of Culinary Medicine at GWU), Rachel Gow (UK fatty acid expert), Andreas Kornstadt (data scientist from Stanford), Wolfram Alderson (food systems engineer and entrepreneur), and I have been working with the Kuwaiti Danish Dairy Company to evaluate each of the 180 items in their portfolio, submit them to physico-chemical analysis, and re-engineer them to be metabolically healthy by adhering to three precepts: feed the gut, protect the liver, and support the brain.
 
This article is the fruit of this labor.
 
We believe this is the path forward for all CPG companies to make processed food healthier. And as always, no conflict of interest—I didn’t take a dime, and this isn’t a propaganda snow job. It’s a long, dense article with a lot of science AND food politics, so I don’t blame you if you don’t read it. JUST READ THE TITLE! And then think: what if we actually had “healthy” processed food?

The Metabolic Matrix: Re-engineering ultraprocessed foods to feed the gut, protect the liver, and support the brain

Ultraprocessed food is established as a metabolic disruptor acting to increase adiposity, reduce mitochondrial efficiency, drive insulin resistance, alter growth, and contribute to human morbidity and mortality. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are beginning to understand the detrimental impact of the food they market, and have employed substitution strategies to reduce salt, sugar, and fat. However, the harms of ultraprocessed foods are far more complex than any single component, and are not ameliorated by such simple substitutions. Over the past 2 years, the authors have worked with the Kuwaiti Danish Dairy Company (KDD) to conduct a comprehensive scientific evaluation of their entire commercial food and beverage portfolio. Assay of the macronutrients, micronutrients, additives, and toxins contained in each of their products was undertaken to determine the precise nature of each product’s ingredients as well as the health impacts of processing. The authors formed a Scientific Advisory Team (SAT) and developed a tiered “Metabolic Matrix” founded in three science-based principles: (1) protect the liver, (2) feed the gut, and (3) support the brain. The Metabolic Matrix categorizes each product and provides the criteria, metrics, and recommendations for improvement or reformulation. Real-time consultation with the KDD Executive and Operations teams was vital to see these procedures through to fruition. This scientific exercise has enabled KDD to lay the groundwork for improving the health, well-being, and sustainability of their entire product line, while maintaining flavor, economic, and fiscal viability. This process is easily transferrable, and we are sharing this effort and its approaches as a proof-of-concept. The key aim of our work is to not only make ultraprocessed food healthier but to urge other food companies to implement similar analysis and reformulation of their product lines to improve the metabolic health and well-being of consumers worldwide.

Click here to view the METHODS article

Front. Nutr., 30 March 2023
Sec. Nutrition and Food Science Technology
Volume 10 – 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1098453
Rules of Reduction

Rules of Reduction

by | Mar 18, 2021 | Uncategorized

Robert’s Rules of Reduction (of processed food, that is)

I’ve spent the last 25 years investigating the causes and treatments of chronic disease

(obesity, diabetes, fatty liver disease) in children and adults. I can sum up my research career in three simple precepts:

  1. It’s the insulin, stupid.
  2. It’s the sugar, stupid.
  3. It’s the lack of fiber, stupid.

All of this has led me to determine that our processed food diet is the primary culprit. It is high-sugar, low-fiber, toxic, addictive, ubiquitous, and detrimental to society. Therefore, I’ve dedicated my efforts to reduce its impact on people and the environment.

I’ve also determined that processed food is not going away, no matter how I may want it to. Partly because it’s cheap, partly because it’s convenient, and partly because it’s addictive.

I’m for fixing the problem any way I can. Society can do this in two ways:

  1. Reduce the availability of processed food.
  2. Reduce the harm of processed food.

Reducing availability is problematic, as the industry keeps pushing it, the public keeps demanding it, and the government keeps ignoring it. I’m doing what I can, most recently publishing a white paper to provide a roadmap for processed food reduction. 

But reducing harm may be a bit easier. To help sick people get better, I’ve teamed up with a group of materials science engineers to develop a proprietary fiber that will absorb sugars in the intestine, thus protecting the liver and feeding the gut, thus mitigating some of the toxic effects of processed food. The company is called BioLumen Technologies. It is very exciting and has generated interest within the processed food industry, most recently PepsiCo.

Some may question this strategy, as it would seem to be the antithesis of my message, and it looks on the surface like a “get out of jail free” card to patients, a “carte blanche” to the industry, and like I am “selling out”. Not true. You can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. People are hurting, people are dying, and COVID is making it worse. To stick to “principle” is to turn my back on these people. I’ve never taken a dime from the food industry, and I’m not starting now. I derive no salary from BioLumen, and I am not on Pepsi’s payroll. I’m just trying to fix the problem any way I can, using my research, knowledge, and expertise.

This fits well within my Hippocratic Oath and my oath to you, the public. Fix the problem. But you can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. Everything I have learned so far in this amazing journey tells me that I do. If the processed food and beverage industry can figure it out too, then all to the better.

Metabolical

by | Sep 22, 2020 | Uncategorized

Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine, by Robert H. Lustig.

To be released May 4, 2021

Pre-orders being taken on Amazon. 

The New York Times bestselling author of Fat Chance explains the eight pathologies that underlie all chronic disease, documents how processed food has impacted them to ruin our health, economy, and environment over the past 50 years, and proposes an urgent manifesto and strategy to cure both us and the planet.

Dr. Lustig, a pediatric neuroendocrinologist who has long been on the cutting edge of medicine and science, challenges our current healthcare paradigm which has gone off the rails under the influence of Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government.

You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. One of Lustig’s singular gifts as a communicator is his ability to “connect the dots” for the general reader, in order to unpack the scientific data and concepts behind his arguments, as he tells the “real story of food” and “the story of real food”.

Metabolical will weave the interconnected strands of nutrition, health/disease, medicine, environment, and society into a completely new fabric by proving on a scientific basis a series of iconoclastic revelations, among them: 

  • Medicine for chronic disease treats symptoms, not the disease itself
  • You can diagnose your own biochemical profile
  • Chronic diseases are not ‘druggable’, but they are ‘foodable’ 
  • Processed food isn’t just toxic, it’s addictive
  • The war between vegan and keto is a false war — the combatants are on the same side
  • Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government are on the other side

Making the case that food is the only lever we have to effect biochemical change to improve our health, Lustig explains what to eat based on two novel criteria: protect the liver, and feed the gut. He insists that if we do not fix our food and change the way we eat, we will continue to court chronic disease, bankrupt healthcare, and threaten the planet. But there is hope: this book explains what’s needed to fix all three.

Food is Health

by | Sep 10, 2020 | Uncategorized

On September 30th, I will be a Keynote Speaker at the Crusonia on the Delta #FoodIsHealth Digital Forum. Crusonia has made Registration for the Forum FREE and encourages anyone passionate about the importance of healthy food to participate. You will be able to watch my conversation titled “FOOD IS HEALTH” live by registering here. I look forward to seeing you (digitally) at the Forum

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