> "Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "industrial formulations of food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain little or no whole foods and typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives," according to the study.
But if I have a package that says it is whole grain or whatever, how do I know if it is or isn't ultraprocessed or just, you know, regular processed?
Indeed. I hate the term "ultraprocessed" so much, because I have no idea what to look for if I try to avoid it.
If I chop my potatoes before boiling them, is that processing? If not, which steps in cooking count as "processing"? And how many of those steps need to be included for the food to be "ultraprocessed"? How can I avoid accidentally "ultraprocessing" my food when I cook it at home?
The definition I heard (apparently by the Brazilian woman that did the first research) was "any ingredient that wouldn't be found in a regular kitchen". Not meaning things like rutabagas or mangosteen, but rather things like xantham gum, soy lecithin, and things with organic chemical names. So by definition you cannot ultra-process your food in your home kitchen.
I think the name is lousy, but I think the reason is that things like xantham gum and soy lecithin are there to provide texture. For example, low-fat yogurt has some of these in it because if you take the fat out, it doesn't have the same texture (probably isn't even solid), so you need to do some processing to get it to the same place. See [1] for a summary.
There's a podcast on the BBC where a doctor tries to get his twin doctor brother of ultra-processed food. Unfortunately, most of the episodes involve emotional issues, but they do have a few minutes of interviews with major researchers. [3] is sort of a summary.
Xanthan gum is sold in major UK supermarkets. I have some myself; I use it for thickening home-made hot sauce. It works well for this because it exhibits "shear thinning". It's viscous enough to hold everything in suspension when it's in the bottle, but when you pour it the viscosity decreases, so it's easy to get it out.
Why are you seeking absolute definitions where none exist? If you have to ask, its probably bad for you. Edges of the grocery store, avoid the aisles, ingredients-not-meals, things not in packaging.... Rules of thumbs abound. Next, a bit of ultra processed stuff is obviously not going to kill you. Some soy sauce, or the ocassional frozen pizza is obviously OK. And its obvious that your example is needlessly contrived. No, its not processing.
This whole thread reads like pedantry for the sake of it.
2. The longer the list of ingredients, the more likely it is to be "highly" processed
3. The way you avoid 'highly' processed stuff is to avoid processing altogether. Buy corn you have to husk, meat you have to cut, fish you have to filet, wine you have to uncork, bread you have to slice, etc.
> Buy corn you have to husk, meat you have to cut, fish you have to filet, wine you have to uncork, bread you have to slice, etc.
Ok, this is just silly. Cutting your own meat doesn't make it healthier than having a butcher cut it for you. Box wine is no more or less healthy than bottled wine with a cork. Slicing bread yourself doesn't change its health contents.
Its statements like these that make the whole argument seem like nonsense.
It's a rule of thumb, friend. It actually does make a difference in the aggregate, as evidenced by the extra ingredients you will find in pre-processed supermarket meat. Have a look at what's in your hot dogs, for example.
Obvious exceptions apply, such as going to the butcher, as you have astutely observed. These do not invalidate the rule-of-thumb.
The issue is rather that nothing in your rule-of-thumb works.
Frozen corn vs whole corn? Were you planning to eat the cob? Does it help my diet to cut corn kernels off manually? How?
Meat you have to cut? Maybe you're thinking hot dogs here, my first thought was ground beef. Does breaking out the meat grinder, and cleaning it, help me eat right? How?
Fish you have to filet? Can I just buy the filets? Or is it 100% necessary that fish skin rot in my garbage can.
Boxed wine? Generally I consider corked wine undrinkable, and I struggle to think what other contribution a cork per se can offer to wine.
Sliced bread? I mean. Look it's a really bad set of rules so I'll have mercy here, the kind of bread which is available only sliced is not great for you, so at least here I can infer your meaning.
Not that it matters because the #1 source of extra pounds on my waist is whole loaves of sourdough bread. I slice them myself.
The sorry state is that a chain is not stronger than the weakest link. And a food is not healthier than the worst ingredient/compound. A "good" nutrient does not make up for the bad/ultra processed additives.
Stay off the granola bar with high fructose corn syrup.
It is more important to avoid the bad anti-nutrients than to eat a particular food for a certain "miracle" nutrient.
> And a food is not healthier than the worst ingredient/compound. A "good" nutrient does not make up for the bad/ultra processed additives.
This can't be true in an absolute sense. There is no way that adding a single drop of high fructose corn syrup to a meal would completely ruin any health benefits of the rest of the meal. There is also no way that adding a bit of corn syrup to a plate of broccoli would be equally as unhealthy for you as a bowl of lucky charms. Obviously the mix of ingredients matters.
Where do you get the idea that a single bad ingredient ruins the entire food?
> Stay off the granola bar with high fructose corn syrup.
Would a granola bar sweetened with the exact same number of sucrose/fructose molecules from organic coconut sugar (or palm sugar, or date juice, etc) be any more healthy?
I currently do not believe it would be. Sugar is sugar. But I'm not 100% sure.
Ultraprocessed for me means "truly delicious and dopamine-inducing". Not that I don't find other food tasty, but something that feels engineered to please your tongue is usually ultraprocessed.
> "People who consumed more than 20% of daily calories from processed foods had a 28% faster decline in global cognition and a 25% faster decline in executive functioning compared to people who ate less than 20%,"
I wish they just showed a graph of "decline in cognition" vs "percentage of calories from processed foods" instead of making me try to parse the relevant information out of sentences like that. What 10% of my calories come from processed foods? I'm I completely safe or is the effect linear in percentage of calories or what?
Obviously I don't think apples/oranges are in the same category as cookies/pizza. The reason why I said they fit the criteria for "ultraprocessed" is to show how absurd your rule is (ie. "something that feels engineered to please your tongue is usually ultraprocessed").
This page from the BBC explains the diffrences between unprocessed and minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods, and ultra-processed foods.
"Ultra-processed foods usually contain ingredients that you wouldn’t add when cooking homemade food. You may not recognise the names of these ingredients as many will be chemicals, colourings, sweeteners and preservatives."
you could distinguish a loaf of bread, which is processed, from boxed bread products like crackers or cookies (ultraprocessed), but i doubt that distinction matters much for our health, as they'll both likely include said additives in varying amounts. in shopping and food prep, i'd consider them synonyms--as in, things to avoid (but not dogmatically, sometimes you want some potato chips).
processed foods only comes in a box, bag, or can; that is, most of the center aisles in a grocery store. buy mostly fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, and dairy--things found on the outer ring of the store. if you want grains or beans, prefer buying the grains/beans directly, not the boxed form of them.
> "Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "industrial formulations of food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain little or no whole foods and typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives," according to the study.
But if I have a package that says it is whole grain or whatever, how do I know if it is or isn't ultraprocessed or just, you know, regular processed?