• A nutrition researcher who studies ultra-processed foods doesn't categorically ban them at home.
• He relies on nutrition basics to choose snacks that are a bit healthier for his family.
• Prioritize beans, whole grains, and vegetables, while avoiding added sugar and excess sodium.

NIH scientist Kevin Hall pioneered the first study to definitively prove that ultra-processed foods — like chicken tenders and prepackaged snacks — drive us to overeat and gain weight.

And yet at home, he doesn't avoid convenience food, and buys ultra-processed snacks for his kids.

Hall says his strategy is not as contradictory as it seems, if you understand the nutrition science behind his choices.

What we know — and don't know — about ultra-processed foods

Six years ago, Hall was the first to show definitively that ultra-processed foods cause people to eat more food (500 calories per day!) and gain weight.

This was a big deal: beforehand, scientists could only draw vague connections between ultra-processed diets and long-term health outcomes. There wasn't a definitive cause-and-effect relationship established between ultra-processed foods and poor health.

Hall's team at the National Institutes of Health put people into a laboratory, gave them strictly prepared foods, and studied every morsel they digested for several weeks at a time, seeing what different diets did to their health.

Since then, research on UPFs has snowballed. Today, ultra-processed foods are the poster child for everything that's wrong with American diets. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are promising to weed them out of our diets as a result of all the new research that has cropped up since Hall's landmark study.

Do not let perfect be the enemy of good, Hall says

Hall is not so strict about cutting all UPFs out, and he isn't going to tell people what to eat.

"I don't stand on my soapbox to claim to know all the answers," he said.

Scientists still don't know exactly why ultra-processed foods are so bad for us. More importantly, he says that we don't actually know yet whether all ultra-processed foods are, by definition, bad.

The NOVA scale — used to differentiate between unprocessed, processed, and ultra-processed foods — only looks at how food was prepared. It does not account for nutritional value.

Is a can of ready-to-heat chili just as unhealthy as a jelly donut? They're both ultra-processed, but one contains meat, beans, and non-starchy veggies. The other is sugar, maybe some butter, refined flour, and lots of oil.

At home, Hall tries not to let perfect be the enemy of good. He makes educated guesses about which ultra-processed foods are the best for his health, while also being a realist about convenience.

Like many nutrition and longevity professionals, he prioritizes non-starchy vegetables, whole grains, fruits, legumes, and beans. He also stocks chicken nuggets in his freezer for nights when the kids need a quick dinner. Goldfish crackers are not forbidden.

Hall thinks big picture, and tries to avoid too much added sugar, saturated fat, and sodium in the ultra-processed foods he picks out for his family.

"Would it be better if you had made the homemade version of that?" Hall wondered aloud. "Maybe. It's possible that there's some weird additive or some ingredient in that food that is not good for you. We don't have the science on that yet, but applying what we do know, I think you can still make educated choices."

Plastic packaging doesn't mean it's bad for you

Canned and frozen foods can be great options for busy folks trying to eat healthier. And they're not all ultra-processed.

"People kind of mistake processed and ultra-processed," Hall said.

"There is some degree of confusion. It's typically people using these rules of thumb: if it comes in a can or a box or a package and has plastic around it, it's ultra-processed. I'm sorry, they put cucumbers in plastic at my supermarket, they're not ultra-processed!"

That kind of rigid thinking leads people into fearing foods like canned beans, tinned fish, or frozen vegetables, pantry staples that can make it easier to cook at home, and regularly eat foods that are great for longevity.

"There's so many canned beans that are just like, seasoned," Hall said. "They don't have some weird additives associated with them. A lot of people don't realize those are just processed foods."

• Tim Spector, a top nutrition scientist, said most people get enough protein but not fiber.
• He recommended people focus on increasing the amount of fiber they eat each day.
• His tips include switching meat for beans and eating different types of plant-based protein.

High-protein foods from cereal bars to pasta have taken over grocery store shelves as people try to eat more of the macronutrient. But a top nutrition scientist said fiber should be our focus.

According to the US Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines for Americans for 2020 to 2025, more than half of Americans meet or exceed the minimum daily requirement for protein, which is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight.

Yet the guidelines say that more than 90% of women and 97% of men in the US don't meet the recommended intake for dietary fiber.

Tim Spector, a British epidemiologist who cofounded the nutrition company Zoe, told Business Insider that people who want to improve their diet should focus on consuming more fiber than protein. Fiber is great for gut health, can improve heart health, and can help ease constipation, among other things.

Rosa Becerra-Soberon, a registered dietitian at Top Nutrition Coaching, told BI that people should aim to have a well-balanced diet containing enough fiber and protein. Those who are particularly active and want to build or maintain lean muscle may need more protein than the amount the US government recommends, as fitness experts previously told BI.

Spector shared three tips on how to hit your protein goals while getting enough fiber.

Prioritize natural protein sources

Spector doesn't eat meat often but wrote in his cookbook, which is set to be released in the US in 2025, that he still consumes about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of his body weight per day, mostly from plants and whole foods.

While plant-based protein sources tend to contain less protein overall than meat, they contain more fiber. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 100 grams of fried tofu contains about 18 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.

Becerra-Soberon said that if you don't consume meat, you should make sure you get all the essential amino acids by eating grains and seeds.

Swap meat for beans and lentils

Spector wrote that replacing meat with legumes is a great way to increase your fiber intake while meeting your protein needs. Legumes such as beans and lentils are protein-heavy but higher in fiber and typically better for the environment than meat.

For example, canned chickpeas contain about 8 grams of protein per 100 grams, as well as 7 grams of dietary fiber. Chicken has 22 grams of protein per 100 grams but no fiber, according to USDA data — and it tends to be more expensive than chickpeas.

The longevity researcher Dan Buettner previously shared dietitian-approved legume recipes with BI.

Variety is key

Because plants generally contain less protein than meat, Spector wrote that he incorporates "a good mix" of plant-based protein sources into his diet throughout the day. This is because different whole foods contain different amounts of protein, so you might have to eat a "variety of nutrient-dense whole foods to take care of your protein needs," he wrote.

For example, Spector's go-to breakfast of yogurt, kefir, berries, nuts, and seeds contains about 30 grams of protein from multiple sources. He may also have butter beans with quinoa for lunch and a portion of tofu for dinner, he said.

Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, Spector's colleague at Zoe, previously shared with BI his favorite bean-chili recipe, which he eats for lunch every day. The recipe includes beans and farro, both of which are good sources of protein and fiber.

Becerra-Soberon also recommended making little additions of protein to meals throughout the day, such as by sprinkling on hemp seeds, which contain 31 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber per 100 grams, or eating almond butter as a snack, which contains about 21 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber per 100 grams.

• A Greek doctor and nutrition scientist says it is possible to eat healthy on a budget.
• She cooks beans a few times a week, and recommends choosing small portions of meat.
• At home, she uses a DIY spread made from 50% butter and 50% olive oil, to make her toast healthier.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dr. Artemis Simopoulos. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Former chair of the nutrition coordinating committee at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Simopoulos is founder and president of the Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health in DC, a nonprofit focused on nutrition education.

I have dedicated my life to studying and eating good food. It's the dearest topic to me.

Scientifically, there is no confusion about how to eat to promote health and longevity. I think all the conflicting and overhyped diet advice you see has been created strictly for financial and political reasons.

So I want to tell you a little bit of my history, and what I've discovered over my 68-year career studying diet and chronic disease.

I hope this information will help you choose foods that will nourish your body, in an affordable, sustainable, delicious way.

In Greece, traditional diets included fresh produce, fish from the sea, lots of olive oil and sourdough bread

As a girl growing up in Kalamata, on the southwestern edge of the Peloponnesian peninsula, I found fresh food everywhere. On the weekends, we would visit our family farm, about 15 minutes outside the city. Traditionally, most Greeks had something like that, a place they could go to pick up fresh food, whether it was their own farmland or a daily market.

At our farm, we had olive trees, figs, pomegranates, walnuts, anything you can imagine. It was very easy for us to have fresh vegetables, fruit, and fish from the Messenian Gulf on the table. Greek people are very proud of their food, and like to make it very fresh. This was especially true when I was growing up, in the 1940s and 50s, as there wasn't much refrigeration outside the big cities.

We'd supplement local foods with some fatty tinned fish from Norway, like smoked herring or cod. That was especially useful on Fridays, when most Greeks, following the Greek Orthodox church tradition, don't eat any meat. But in general, our diet was pretty low on meat back then. We would eat small quantities of lamb, and some chicken. There was no beef. The backbone of our diet was legumes, like chickpeas, black eyed peas, and northern beans, great for soups and cold salads, plus lots of sourdough bread. People would also hunt and eat some wild birds, which are rich in iron, fostering healthy hemoglobin.

We also had many protein-rich snacks, like lupin beans, which people would often turn into a pickled snack with a little salt. My favorite sweet treat was a Kalamata dried fig stuffed with walnuts and almonds. What a shock it was when I arrived in America for college!

When I arrived in the US for college, I was shocked to find white flour everywhere

When I arrived in New York for college, snow wasn't the only thing that was new, fluffy, and bright white. I discovered that white flour was everywhere in the American diet. Chocolate-chip cookies, chicken à la king, and bread that tasted like cotton to me. I wasn't used to this, and it was a difficult adjustment.

In Greece, I was raised on thinner sauces created with lemon, olive oil, white wine, and maybe some butter. All of this rich, thick, floury food in the US was so different. I couldn't eat half of the meals they served in my dormitory. Sometimes I'd just have Swedish rye crackers with some cheese on them for dinner.

On the weekends, the Greek students would ride the subway downtown to a restaurant near Times Square called The Pantheon. What a great time we'd have, sitting around dishes of lamb and potatoes, big fresh Greek salads, and sharing fruit for dessert.

Once I moved to Boston for medical school, it was easier to get fresh, good food. There were plenty of Greek markets within walking distance of where I lived, and I had my own little kitchenette where I could prepare meals.

I have developed some traditional recipes, which I share in my Omega-3 diet book, but I tell people you don't have to be Greek to eat well, which is why I also have a new book called "The Healthiest Diet for You: Scientific Aspects," which I've made available for free online.

History tells us you can eat well and save money

For thousands of years, people around the world have found their own ways to eat a balanced, nutrient-rich diet that's aligned with their genetics.

While it's true the traditional Greek eating plan is great for health and longevity, naturally staving off many chronic diseases, the Greeks were not alone in figuring out how to source local, abundant items that were good for their hearts and minds. In South America, there are Chia seeds, in China, Camellia trees.

The key thing everyone has in common in these traditional eating plans is a focus on fresh foods, like omega-3-rich leafy greens, plus plenty of other vegetables and a base of legumes for protein.

Most traditional diets are rounded out with small amounts of meat, and fatty fish, as well as plenty of nuts.

It's an inexpensive, and sustainable way to eat. We don't need to buy into all these new highly-processed meat-free alternatives, or vegan and gluten-free packaged treats, which are not health foods.

I always advise my friends to select the freshest local meats and fish they can find. Some complain that this is a pricey strategy, so I tell them 'eat half as much.' You don't really need to spend so much money. Replace a third of the meat you eat with beans on the plate. We ought to be a lot more conscious and respect food.

It's this issue of imbalance, piling oil, sugar, and white flour into everything we eat, that I believe is at the core of the modern chronic disease epidemic in the US. Our processed foods are to blame. But I don't want people to lose hope. You can eat a healthy diet.

I take care to ensure, for example, that my eggs are rich in omega-3 — an essential fatty acid our brains need to thrive. In the late 1980s I did some studies comparing American chicken eggs to Greek eggs from my farm and found the ratio of essential fatty acids, which should be 1:1, was in complete balance on the farm, while in the US it was higher than 20:1! I couldn't believe it.

Even in Greece things are rapidly changing, and it's really sad. We all need to get back to our plant-based diets. For the Greeks, these were diets rich in local greens, extra virgin olive oil, and sourdough bread.

My simple trick: add olive oil into your diet — you can even mix it with butter

My recommendation: Cook beans at least a couple of times a week. Snack on nuts and seeds instead of processed foods filled with sugar and white flour, which are stripped of the nutrients and plant compounds that our bodies need to function well.

And if you can only start with one thing, may I recommend one of my favorite home cooking hacks? Mix your butter or your canola oil in a 1 to 1 ratio with extra virgin olive oil.

My butter and olive oil mix makes a great healthy spread for toast, while my go-to cooking oil mixture of 50% organic canola and 50% EVOO is a science-backed way to balance nutrition by improving the polyphenol composition of your meals and the anti-inflammatory properties of the dish.

Enjoy!

• Business Insider has spoken to many centenarians about their tips for living to 100.
• Many believe that eating well has helped them to live longer.
• Their tips include eating whole foods and having the occasional treat.

Living to 100 is relatively rare: only 0.03% of the US population are centenarians, according to an analysis by Pew Research Center.

But Pew predicts that the number of centenarians in the US will quadruple by 2054, as life expectancy increases. Genes, environmental factors, and luck play big roles in how long someone might live, but lifestyle choices matter, too.

Here's how eight centenarians who have spoken to Business Insider eat, which may have contributed to their health and longevity.

Eat fresh, whole foods

Many of the centenarians BI has reported on eat lots of fresh, whole foods — and not much meat.

102-year-old Deborah Szekely has been a pescatarian all her life, and grows a lot of her own vegetables on the ranch in Baja California, Mexico, where she still works.

Pearl Taylor, also 102, based in Dayton, Ohio, said she eats a mostly vegetarian diet, and meat on occasion. She also swears by her homemade green juice, which contains aloe root, celery, parsley, ginger, and water sweetened with Splenda.

Meanwhile, Lousie Jean Signore, the second oldest person in New York at 112 years old, follows the Mediterranean diet, which is high in whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, beans, and olive oil.

Signore eats salad, fruit, and vegetables every night, and adds tomato sauce, garlic, or olive oil to all her main meals, as BI previously reported.

The Mediterranean diet is widely considered to be the healthiest way to eat, and research has linked it to improved heart health, weight loss, and preventing cognitive decline.

Cook at home

Taylor prepares all of her meals and hasn't eaten a pre-packaged meal in "years," she said.

This is common among centenarians, many of whom grew up before fast food and microwaveable meals became widely available.

For example, 101-year-old William, from Toronto, cooks all his meals, featuring lots of sardines, which he thinks are his longevity secret.

Jack Van Nordheim, 101, known as Uncle Jack on social media, never developed a taste for fast food, instead preferring simple homemade meals such as boiled chicken.

Eating more home cooking can mean people eat fewer ultra-processed foods, which have been linked to major health problems, including depression, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

A 2017 study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that participants who cooked at home five times a week were more likely to follow healthy ways of eating such as the Mediterranean diet; eat more fruit and vegetables; and be a healthy weight.

Eat moderately…

Many Japanese centenarians follow the principle of "hara hachi bu," which means they eat until they are 80% full, Yumi Yamamoto, who works for LongeviQuest, an organization that verifies the ages of supercentenarians, told BI.

Yamamoto's great-grandma, Shigeyo Nakachi, was the second-oldest living person in Japan when she died in 2021. Yamamoto said that Nakachi never ate to excess and wouldn't finish a whole chocolate bar in one sitting.

Similarly, the mantra of Ireland's oldest man, 108-year-old Martin McEvilly, who cycled regularly until he was 99, is "everything in moderation."

For McEvilly, this means only drinking alcohol on Sunday evenings, when he enjoys three pints of Guinness.

… but treat yourself

Although Japanese supercentenarians tend to eat in moderation, Yamamoto said they still treat themselves.

Kane Tanaka, the second oldest person in recorded history, who lived to 119, enjoyed a bottle of Coca-Cola every day, she said.

Likewise, Szekely enjoys the occasional serving of coffee ice cream, and Uncle Jack attributes his longevity to eating dark chocolate and honey daily.

Experts agree that incorporating treats into your diet can make healthy eating more sustainable. Dietitian Nicole Ludlam-Raine promotes the 80/20 diet, where you eat healthily 80% of the time and allow yourself to eat what you like the other 20%.

• An epidemiologist and nutrition expert eats at least three fermented foods each day for gut health.
• Tim Spector shared his tips on how to incorporate fermented foods into your diet.
• These include starting small, checking food labels, and "backslopping."

You may have noticed a proliferation of kefir and kombucha in stores lately. Fermented foods are everywhere, but can be a little intimidating to people who aren't used to them.

Tim Spector, a British epidemiologist and cofounder of the nutrition company Zoe, eats at least three different types of fermented foods every day to aid his gut health.

Research on fermented foods is still developing, but, according to a 2022 review in the journal Nutrients, studies suggest that they can reduce risks of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and increase the diversity of bacteria in the gut. The gut thrives on a varied diet, so this diversity is important for digestive and overall health.

Spector told Business Insider how he incorporates fermented foods into his diet.

Start small

"Little and often" is the best way to start adding fermented foods to your diet, Spector wrote in his cookbook "Food For Life," which is due to be published in the US in 2025.

This allows you to get used to the taste and your gut to get used to all the new bacteria.

Spector recommends adding a tablespoon of different fermented foods to your cooking — for example, kimchi in a stew for "flavor and crunch," or kefir to a soup for "creaminess and tang."

This chimes with what other experts told BI: Tanzil Miah, a dietitian specializing in gut health, said adding kimchi or sauerkraut to sandwiches or salads, and using yogurt as a sauce or marinade are easy ways to add fermented foods to what you're already eating.

Check out labels of shop-bought fermented foods

"My advice to the fermenting newcomer is to find some commercial fermented products you enjoy and slowly work up to fermenting your own," Spector wrote in "Food For Life."

When buying shop-bought fermented foods, such as kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, or kimchi, he recommends looking for products that are:

• Low in added sugar.
• Have few/no chemical additives.
• Not pickled in vinegar, which kills live microbes.

Then make your own

When you're ready, Spector said you can expand the scope of fermented foods away from just pickles and kefir. He now makes his own homemade labneh and a fermented mushroom-and-garlic spread, for example.

Making fermented foods at home is also great for the environment and your wallet because it reduces food waste, he said.

And it's easy. "You can ferment just about any plant," he said, using only salt or honey.

BI previously reported a Michelin-star chef's techniques for making homemade kimchi, sauerkraut, and pickles.

Or, Spector said, you can make your own kefir from the dregs of a store-bought bottle with a technique called "backslopping." To backslop kefir, add a tablespoon of good-quality kefir to a bottle of full-fat milk, leave it at room temperature until it thickens, and then store in the fridge.