American grocery culture has become so accustomed to ultra-processed foods that snack maker Frito-Lay recently decided to completely revamp their potato chip bags to clearly tell people that their chips are made from real potatoes. Ultra-processed foods are everywhere, and they took center stage in a recent Insurance Institute course because their impact goes beyond just wondering what’s in the food we eat. The risk and insurance aspects of this are not yet fully developed.
First, let’s focus on what we mean by ultra-processed foods. Federal agency definitions of ultra-processed foods are constantly evolving and complex, so rather than trying to settle on an official definition, let’s adopt a reliable working definition. The ECU category defines ultra-processed foods (UPF) as “foods containing industrial ingredients such as preservatives, artificial flavors, and high levels of refined sugar and fat.”
How the body reacts to UPF
According to the team’s research, UPFs are designed to be easily and quickly digested by the body, allowing them to break down fairly quickly. This results in the body being unable to send satiety signals, making it easy, convenient, and excessive to overeat. Yes. That’s why you like three servings of any Little Debbie snack, rather than eating one and feeling good about yourself.
When you combine rapid digestion with leaving you craving another taste and extra sugar and fat, you get adverse health results. According to the class, a 2019 French study showed that a 10% increase in UPF intake would increase mortality by 14%. These foods have been linked to cardiovascular and fatty liver disease due to the increased amounts of refined oils, sodium content, and other compounds used in processing these foods. Increased sugar intake is also associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
There are also signs that these foods affect the body in other ways that are harder to quantify. Refined sugar can cause energy spikes and crashes, which is what our parents warned us about back in the day. These energy fluctuations can cause fatigue and strange sleep difficulties. There are also indications that consuming too many of these foods can lead to symptoms of depression, in part because the compounds in these foods can trigger an inflammatory response in the body.
Tough lifestyle issues exist here too
Some people tend to live healthier lifestyles than others. People who take the stairs, bike to work, or go to the gym every day also tend to eat less UPF. They incorporate fresh foods, more carefully prepared meals, and more moderate amounts of food into their diets.
The same is often true on the other side of the coin. Some people just make other choices. They don’t go to the gym. Their diet is built around convenience and cost. The quicker and easier it is to prepare dinner, the better. They often don’t take the time or can’t afford the expense to choose other foods.
We cannot ignore the pace of 21Yingshi century life. The family was running in every imaginable direction at the same time. Everyone wakes up in the morning, grabs a quick bite to eat, and runs out of the house. Children eat prepackaged snacks when they snack at school. Lunch is a mixture of processed foods from vending machines, the school store, or the lunch trading floor. When everyone gets home for dinner (or they eat dinner on the way to something in the evening), it’s all about grabbing a quick bite of something that everyone will eat and we’ll debate fresh veggies when we have time sometime next week.
How does this relate to insurance?
Consider a personal injury claim, such as a slip and fall or minor car accident. We’re talking about an accident in which a person walks away with broken bones, cuts, scrapes, and bruises. We’re not talking about the people who fell down and hired big groups of billboard lawyers. We’re not talking about someone who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Keep it simple.
Since I am neither a doctor nor a personal injury attorney, please do not consider this to be medical or legal advice. I’m an insurance guy, let me tell you a story.
As we have just outlined, a relatively minor personal injury claim should be straightforward. There are also some medical expenses. There may be some breaks. There may even be some pain, suffering, loss of services, and other related expenses. Maybe the claim is all for $10,000. The claimants paid their bills, rested and recovered, and soon they were back to their daily routines, happily playing pickleball, sending the kids to school and wondering what their bosses wanted at 4pm on a Friday.
However, considering the same claims, the claimants were already unhealthy, in part due to the majority of their UPF diet. Prior to the accident, our claimant was likely overweight and was developing type 2 diabetes. These health conditions can complicate the healing process.
The body needs good quality food to provide energy on a good day, and when it’s trying to recover from an injury, it needs more good quality food to provide the nutrients the body uses to rebuild damaged tissue and heal injured tissue. Certain foods can also help relieve inflammation and other problems that occur when someone injured in an accident is trying to heal.
If our claimants continue on a UPF-focused diet because that was their habit before their injury, and because they are out of work and they are dealing with medical bills, money may be tighter than usual, forcing them deeper into the UPF convenience and cost cycle. Therefore, when the body is trying to recover from the injury, they consume lower quality foods and prevent the original condition from getting worse.
In this case, we have an injured person who may not recover as quickly as others. Now consider other social determinants of health. Our claimant was harmed which left him unhappy and perhaps even desperate. On top of that, he was under pressure from his job to come back, but he couldn’t due to injury. Then he saw the prospect of a bill coming due. All of these factors can turn a simple liability claim into a complex, potentially litigious issue that costs claimants time and money they don’t really think they have.
If you are interested in this topic and would like to take the course, you can go to the Academy of Insurance at Insurance Journal and View the recording here.
