REVEALED: The ‘healthy’ foods at Walmart, Target and Whole Foods contain cancer-causing chemicals

A first report of its kind has exposed so-called ‘healthy’ supermarket food and its toxic ingredients.

Researchers have created the largest database of its kind, ranking tens of thousands of products from Target, Walmart and Whole Foods and rating foods out of 100 based on how processed they are and how many calories and sugar they contain.

Although science hasn’t concluded exactly why, studies suggest that the more processed your diet, the greater your risk for conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The new database reveals a surprising number of foods and drinks that look healthy – such as salads, fruit juices, bags of trail mix and oatmeal – but score just as bad, if not worse, than some sweets and confectionery.

One of the more surprising worst offenders was a salad from Whole Foods. Our own brand, healthy looking salad with Brussels sprouts, kale and shaved parmesan cheese scored 93.

The salad contains a host of ingredients, including sunflower and canola oil, both of which have been linked to a higher risk of colon cancer.

It also contained 194 calories per 100g serving.

The researchers created the database, which anyone can access online and use to create healthier substitutes, because there is no easy way for consumers to identify which foods are processed, highly processed or ultra-processed.

Although almost all foods undergo some form of processing, such as washing and packaging, ultra-processed foods are often made with substances created in a laboratory.

An advanced algorithm was used to rate more than 50,000 of the 100 products, with a higher score indicating that it is worse for your health.

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As a healthier alternative to the Whole Foods salad, the database suggests several options, including an organically packaged salad kit from Whole Foods with just 29 calories per 100-gram serving and a chicken salad from the same retailer with no sugar.

These two products had a score of one and 15 respectively.

Breakfast products

Then some Quaker instant apple and cinnamon oats from Target have a high score of 99.

The data shows that a 100-gram serving of oats contains almost as much sugar as two Reese’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups (22 grams) at 25.6 grams.

One cup of breakfast meal also contains 372 calories and has eight different additives listed in the ingredients.

Instead, Walmart’s organic Quaker oats have a score of just six, with a 100-gram serving containing just 2.5 grams of sugar and no synthetic ingredients.

There’s also only one ingredient in the container (100 percent natural Quaker quality whole grain rolled oats), with no additives.

Bread

Many packaged loaves were rated poorly, with a Pepperidge Farm Soft Honey Wheat loaf from Walmart deemed one of the unhealthiest.

The database shows that it contains calcium propionate, a food additive used to extend shelf life.

Research shows that the preservative can be carcinogenic and can also cause irritability, restlessness and sleep disorders in some children if used regularly.

It also contains 5 g of sugar per two slices and more than 140 calories.

At the other end of the scale, a sliced ​​seven-grain loaf from Whole Foods gets an impressive score of just one.

According to the database, an equal serving of this bread provides approximately 11 calories and 0.6 grams of sugar.

Fruit juices and energy drinks

On the beverage side, diet drinks have some of the worst scores.

Cans of Strawberry Lemonade Flavored Diet V8 Energy Juice Drinks from Walmart have a score of 99.

The drinks contain nine additives, including the artificial sweetener sucralose, which scientists believe may increase the activity of genes linked to inflammation and cancer.

This is in contrast to the healthy claims it advertises.

On its website, V8 states that its drinks are “made from fruits and vegetables, and give you 80mg of caffeine from tea.”

It adds that they’re also “rich in B vitamins and made without added sugar, (so) it’s a feel-good energy drink.”

Meanwhile, Walmart’s ‘Great Value’ cranberry juice gets the maximum score (100) for its poor nutritional value, with five food additives, including sucralose.

A bottle of ‘organic’ apple juice from Target Fairs scores just as poorly at 99 out of 100, with a cup containing almost a day’s worth of sugar at 25 grams.

This is concerning because children are the largest consumers of fruit juice compared to other age groups.

The American Heart Association states that men should consume no more than nine teaspoons (36 grams or 150 calories) of added sugar per day.

Women are warned not to consume more than six teaspoons (25 g or 100 calories) per day.

One of the healthiest rated juices in the database is a ‘Watercress Warrior’ drink from Whole Foods with a score of one.

One cup contains 12 cAlorie, 0.8g of sugar and the only additive listed is ‘lemon juice’.

Snacks

Another high-sugar item is a bag of peanut butter and jelly trail mix from Whole Foods.

A 100-gram serving contains just over 464 calories and 42 grams of sugar, plus there are 20 additives on the ingredients list.

One of the additives is xanthan gum, one of the most commonly used ingredients in ultra-processed foods.

While some studies have linked xanthan gum to health benefits such as weight loss and lower cholesterol, other research suggests that it may cause intestinal disruption and play a role in the development of colon cancer.

When it comes to “smart snacking,” Target’s Smart 50 White Cheddar Popcorn gets a score of 98 in the database.

The data shows that a 100 gram serving contains 464 calories and 10 food additives, including maltodextrin which has been shown to alter gut bacteria.

This is comparable to a container of Orville Redenbacher’s Original Premium White Popcorn Kernels from Walmart, with 300 calories per 100 g and without additives.

It received a score of one with only one ingredient.

Commenting on the database results, lead researcher Dr Giulia Menichetti said: ‘There are a lot of mixed messages about what someone should eat.

‘Our work aims to create a kind of translator that helps people look at food information in a more digestible way.

“By creating a system that rates processed foods, consumers don’t have to be bombarded with excessive and challenging information to eat healthier.”

The food database is available to the public through the TrueFood website.

The website offers several food categories with a processing score, nutrition facts, and an ingredient tree that shows the composition of different foods.

The researchers say that while Whole Foods offers more minimally processed options, most of the food all these stores sell is ultra-processed.

There is a system for classifying ultra-processed foods called NOVA, which was developed by Brazilian scientists who first started looking into the subject in the 1990s.

But there is a lot of “room for interpretation” in these guidelines, Dr. Williams said.

If a food contains ingredients you wouldn’t use at home (additives and stabilizers with long names, for example), it’s probably an ultra-processed product.

This system does not classify foods based on their nutritional value.

For example, mountain dew is ultra-processed, which has virtually no nutritional benefit, but so are many brands of multigrain bread, which contains fiber, vitamins and even some protein.

In recent years, scientists have discovered that ultra-processed foods can increase the risk of cardiovascular problems, diabetes, cancer, and a host of other nasty health problems aside from expanding the waistband.

In some stores, highly processed foods were the only option in some categories.

For example, the cereal at Whole Foods ranges from minimal to ultra-processed.

However, all cereals available at Walmart and Target have a high processing score.

This same trend was seen in the categories of soups and stews, yogurt and yogurt drinks, milk and milk substitutes, and cookies and biscuits.

This is due to added sugars and food additives such as flavorings and emulsifiers.

The authors note that while supermarkets may sell a wide variety of products and brands, “the processing choices offered may be identical across multiple stores, limiting consumers’ food choices to a narrow range.”

While the data on the TrueFood website is remarkably detailed, it remains limited because it comes from only three stores at one point in time.

In the future, the researchers say they would like to see how food options vary in different parts of the country.

Dr. Menichetti concludes: ‘People can use this information, but our goal would be to push this into a large-scale, data-driven tool to improve public health.

“Most nutrition research still relies on manual curation, but our research shows that artificial intelligence and data science can be used to scale.”