American grocery culture is so used to ultra-processed foods that snack maker Frito-Lay recently decided to overhaul their potato chip bags to tell people specifically that their potato chips are made with real potatoes. Ultra-processed foods are everywhere, and in a recent Academy of Insurance class, they took center stage because their impact goes beyond wondering what is in the food we eat. There’s a risk and insurance aspect of this that has yet to be fully developed.
First, let’s focus on what ultra-processed food means. Federal agencies have a continually evolving and complex definition of ultra-processed food, so rather than attempting to nail down an official definition, let’s go with a solid working definition. The ECU class defined ultra-processed food (UPF) as, “foods that contain industrial ingredients like preservatives, artificial flavors, and high levels of refined sugars and fats.”
How the body reacts to UPF
According to the team’s research, UPF are designed to be easily and quickly digested by the body, making them break down fairly quickly. This causes the body not to signal fullness, which makes it easy, convenient, and too much to eat some more. Yes. That’s the simple reason why you enjoy three of any of Little Debbie’s snacks, rather than having one and feeling like you’re good.
When you couple rapid digestion with the taste that makes you want another one, and the extra sugars and fats, you have a recipe for poor health outcomes. According to the class, a French study in 2019 indicated that a 10% increase in UPF consumption increased the death rate by 14%. These foods are linked to cardiovascular and fatty liver diseases due to the refined oils, increased sodium, and other compounds that are used to process this food. The increased sugar intake is also linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
There are also indications that these foods impact the body in other, harder to quantify ways. The refined sugars cause those energy spikes and crashes that our parents warned us about back in the day. These energy fluctuations can cause fatigue, and oddly difficulty sleeping. There are indications also that too much of these foods can cause symptoms of depression, due in part to the compounds that can cause an inflammatory response in the body.
The tough lifestyle issue that also lives here
Some people tend to live healthier lifestyles than others do. The people who walk up the stairs, bike to work, or who hit the gym daily also tend to eat less UPF. They fill their diets with fresh foods, more deliberately prepared meals, and more measured portions of those foods.
The other side of the coin is also generally true. Some people simply make other choices. They aren’t going to the gym. Their diets are constructed around convenience and cost. The faster and easier it is to get dinner ready, the better. They often don’t take the time, or can’t afford the cost, to make other food choices.
We can’t ignore the pace of 21st century life. Families are running in every imaginable direction all at once. Everyone gets up in the morning and fixes a quick bite before running out of the house. The kids have pre-packaged snacks for snack time in school. Lunch is a mix of processed foods that come from a vending machine, the school store, or the lunch trading floor. By the time everyone makes it back home for dinner (or they take dinner on the way to something in the evening), it’s all about getting a quick bite that everyone will eat, and we’ll argue about fresh veggies sometime next week when there is time.
How this connects to insurance
Consider a bodily injury claim, such as a slip and fall, or minor auto accident. We’re talking about the sort of accident where a person comes away with some broken bones, cuts and scrapes, and some bruising. We aren’t talking about someone who fell and hired a large billboard attorney groups. We aren’t talking about someone who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Keep it simple.
Since I’m neither a doctor nor a personal injury attorney, don’t take any of this as medical or legal advice. I’m an insurance person, telling a story.
A relatively minor bodily injury claim, like we just outlined should be straightforward. There are some medical bills. There may be some time off work. There could even be some pain and suffering, loss of services, and other costs involved. Maybe all in this claim is $10,000. The claimant has their bills paid, rests and heals, and in short order, they go back to their daily life, happily playing pickleball, taking the kids to school, and wondering what their boss is calling for at 4 pm on Friday.
However, consider this same claim and the claimant is already unhealthy in part due to their largely UPF diet. Before the accident, our claimant may have been overweight and dealing with the beginnings of type 2 diabetes. Those health conditions will complicate the healing process.
The body needs good foods for energy on a good day and when it is trying to heal from an injury, it needs more quality foods to provide the nutrients that the body will use to rebuild what’s broken, and to heal the tissues that have been injured. Certain foods also help inflammation and other issues that arise while a person is trying to heal from those injuries sustained in the accident.
If our claimant continues to eat a diet focused on UPF because that was their habit before being injured, and since they aren’t working, and there are medical bills that they’re dealing with, money may be tighter than normal, forcing them deeper into the UPF convenience and cost cycle. So they’re taking in lower quality foods while the body is trying to heal from its injuries, and keep it’s preexisting conditions from getting worse.
In this scenario, we have an injured person who may not heal as quickly as other people. Now consider other social determinants of health. Our claimant is hurt, which makes him feel unhappy, even potentially hopeless. On top of that, he’s getting pressure from work to return, but he can’t because of the injuries. Then he sees the prospect of the bills coming due. All of these factors potentially turn what might be a simple liability claim into a complex, potentially litigated matter, costing the claimant time and money that he doesn’t really feel like he has.
If you’re interested in this topic and would like to check out the class, you can go to Insurance Journal’s Academy of Insurance and check out the recording here.
