Learn How to Better Handle ‘It’

By Kevin Kolodziejski 

It Will Improve Your Dieting, Riding, and Life

My first article for RBR about four and a half years ago began with a belief about you and me, one that I still believe as fervently as today’s title. That while we both like the comradeship, competitiveness, and considerable cal burn (provided you push it) that cycling provides, we love not only how it makes us feel, but also that it allows us to feel so much in a relatively short period of time.

That going on an ambitious three-hour ride means — no ifs, ands, buts, or flat tires about it — we experience three weeks’ worth of feelings. Some will be bad, obviously, but most will be good. And on those special rides where both our minds and bodies are spot-on, some will be life-affirming. Therein lies the lure and our love.

It’s a love that in large part drives my desire to learn all I can about food.

But eating’s a subject where I’m pretty sure you and I are not alike.  For what I revealed in that first article — that I eat 14 bagged salads and 3 pounds of Brussels sprouts every week — is just the tip of my odd-eating iceberg. But we do share at least one eating commonality.  In the United States, 73 percent of the food supply is ultraprocessed. That means about seven out of every 10 foods in local grocery store, yours or mine, is ultraprocessed.

73 Percent of the US Food Supply Is Ultraprocessed

That’s a fact, one cited in an April 2023 article published in Nature Communications about the degree of food processing in the United States, one which leads to the question for today. How to handle it?

I have the answer, but before I reveal it, I want to acknowledge the help I had in getting it. It came by way of a podcast featuring Michael A. Singer, author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment. While Singer and his books certainly deserve mention in their own right, doing so serves a second important purpose here. The answer I’m about to offer is so damn simple that I fear you’ll dismiss it — unless, that is, I make it clear a guy far wiser than I had a hand in it.

And it would certainly be a shame if you dismissed it. For it’s also the answer to handling every situation or circumstance in your life that needs handling: Learn to handle the ‘it’ well.

Handle the ‘It’ Well

For if you do, you are physically and mentally well.  If you don’t, you’re not.

And when the ‘it’ is the proliferation of ultraprocessed foods in the United States, you better handle it well. For it may be, according to a study published in the June 2025 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a matter of life or death.

The Latest Study on Ultraprocessed Foods

The study considered data from eight countries, some where inhabitants get less than 20 percent of their daily calories from UPF (Colombia and Brazil), and some where the percentage is more than 2.5 times that (the United Kingdom and the United States). The study was observational, following the participants over a course of time (for one or two years, depending on the country), and therefore does not establish cause and effect. But it does establish a very important relationship, one that may require some handling on your part.

That for each 10 percent increase in UPF consumption, what’s considered to be an early death (one that occurs between the ages of 30 and 69 from any cause) increases by 3 percent. While a 3 percent increase may not seem significant, it’s the nature of the relationship — that it’s linear in nature and based upon the dose — that makes it so.

Because typical American adults receive more than 50 percent of their daily calories from UPF, so the researchers estimate that 14 percent of early deaths in the United States can be attributed to UPF consumption. But even if you’re not a typical American and eat mostly unprocessed or minimally processed foods, that finding could affect you. For it’s likely that many of the American adults who matter to you are typical; therefore, attending a funeral for one of them could be the ‘it’ you have to handle in the not-to-distant future.

In light of that, here’s a bit more from Singer’s podcast, “Mastering Life: The Art of Handling Everything.”

A Bit More From Singer’s Podcast

Singer explains the world’s “a happening place,” and that all sorts of things are going to happen, like your child throwing a tantrum in a department store. If that’s the case, one of two things will happen next.  You’ll either handle ‘it’ or you will not.

If you do handle it, you’ll be fine.  If you don’t, you won’t.

Singer doesn’t offer advice on how to handle that situation, though, because “it’s your child, it’s your department store.” He does make clear, however, that handling any ‘it’ you encounter isn’t the same as surrendering to it, and that an acknowledgement of the ‘it’ is crucial. So what is it exactly that you need to do when the ‘it’ you’re trying to handle is ultraprocessed food?

What to Do When the ‘It’ Is Ultraprocessed Food

You need to acknowledge the proliferation of it while also remembering that the previously mentioned study found the relationship between the consumption of UPF and early death to be “a linear, dose-response relationship.” Which means — as Lisa O’Mary points out in an article for Nourish by WebMD, “Will Ultra-Processed Foods Kill You?” — “it works the opposite way, too. Your risk drops in an equal manner each time you choose a healthier option instead of an ultra-processed product.”

So handle this ‘it’ by considering of the types of foods you’re eating, acknowledging the apparent risks in ultraprocessed ones, and adjust your diet accordingly.

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Kevin Kolodziejski began his writing career in earnest in 1989. Since then he’s written a weekly health and fitness column and his articles have appeared in magazines such as “MuscleMag,” “Ironman,” “Vegetarian Times,” and “Bicycle Guide.” He has Bachelor and Masters degrees in English from DeSales and Kutztown Universities.

A competitive cyclist for more than 30 years, Kevin won two Pennsylvania State Time Trial championships in his 30’s, the aptly named Pain Mountain Time Trial 4 out of 5 times in his 40s, two more state TT’s in his 50’s, and the season-long Pennsylvania 40+ BAR championship at 43.