Study: 'PAMP' Molecules In Processed Foods Are Big Health Risk

Researchers have revealed that some processed foods, including things like chopped vegetables, sausages, and chocolates, have high instances of harmful pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP) molecules that could increase someone's risks of developing various health issues, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Fresh foods, though, such as whole vegetables, have undetectable levels of these harmful bacteria.

Processed foods, of course, are foods that have been processed in some way from their whole form into their final form, whatever that may be. Things like frozen ready made meals spring to mind, but processed foods — including ones that contain harmful PAMPs — are as seemingly innocuous as things like pre-chopped onions instead of whole onions.

Some food processing can allow a certain type of bacteria to grow, however, and that bacteria then produces a "contaminating molecule" called PAMPs. These PAMPs, which aren't detected in fresh foods and foods that haven't been processed, could be a big reason why excess consumption of processed foods leads to health troubles, including the development of serious diseases like coronary artery disease.

The study was done by University of Leicester researchers and led by Dr. Clett Erridge, who said:

In essence, we have discovered that contaminating molecules that arise in processed foods from the overgrowth of a specific type of bacteria during refrigeration or food processing can cause our immune systems to over-react in a manner that might be damaging to health when we eat foods containing these molecules.

To test this, the researchers had volunteers eat low-PAMPs diets for a week — at the end of it, the volunteers had their white blood cell count drop by 11-percent and "bad" LDL cholesterol drop by 18-percent. This means that if the diet and its results were maintained, the results would be equal to (or greater than) decreasing heart disease risk by 40-percent.

In addition, nixing the processed foods from their diets resulted in weight loss, the average of which was 0.6kg among the volunteers, and an average waist shrinkage of 1.5cm. These effects disappeared, though, when the volunteers were switched to a diet of foods "enriched in PAMPs."

It's important to note, though, that some processed foods do not have PAMPs, and the researchers believe it is possible that "almost any current foodstuff" could be made in such a way that PAMPs are kept low. The process the researchers developed to detect PAMP levels could also be used by manufacturers to help them figure out when in the manufacturing process the PAMPs appear.

SOURCE: University of Leicester