I don’t think Americans eat healthy, but “ultra processed” not defined by any metric is in favor of the manufacturer. Something can be unprocessed and unhealthy and vice versa. Better regulation would help.
The article claims instant oatmeal is bad because it’s sugary, salty, and has other additives then goes on to recommend eating oatmeal and adding sugar yourself. I’m not sure I understand why it’s much better for you.
This is the shit that grinds me. You have the world’s information at your finger tips and you’re making a wild claim that there isn’t a definition for something and basing your argument around that. You have gone this far in your life with the belief that there is no definition “but any metric” for Ultra Process foods?
Don’t you think that’s a little absurd to think this? I mean, it’s literally in the word. Not processed – ultra processed; meaning, roughly, that the food or ingredients in that food are processed again after initial processing.
What I will grant you is that this word is sometimes thrown around inappropriately. You (and us all) have every right to be upset by this confusion and misrepresentation.
Category 4: Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations made from food components. They include additives that are rare or nonexistent in culinary use, like emulsifiers, hydrogenated oils, synthetic colors, texture improvers or flavor enhancers. Think chips, soda, instant soup, pastries and mass-produced breads.
Ultra-processed foods, such as soft drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, reconstituted meat products and pre-prepared frozen dishes, are not modified foods but formulations made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives, with little if any intact Group 1 food.
Ingredients of these formulations usually include those also used in processed foods, such as sugars, oils, fats or salt. But ultra-processed products also include other sources of energy and nutrients not normally used in culinary preparations. Some of these are directly extracted from foods, such as casein, lactose, whey and gluten. Many are derived from further processing of food constituents, such as hydrogenated or interesterified oils, hydrolysed proteins, soya protein isolate, maltodextrin, invert sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.
Additives in ultra-processed foods include some also used in processed foods, such as preservatives, antioxidants and stabilizers. Classes of additives found only in ultra-processed products include those used to imitate or enhance the sensory qualities of foods or to disguise unpalatable aspects of the final product. These additives include dyes and other colours, colour stabilizers; flavours, flavour enhancers, non-sugar sweeteners; and processing aids such as carbonating, firming, bulking and anti-bulking, de-foaming, anti-caking and glazing agents, emulsifiers, sequestrants and humectants.
A multitude of sequences of processes is used to combine the usually many ingredients and to create the final product (hence ‘ultra-processed’). The processes include several with no domestic equivalents, such as hydrogenation and hydrolysation, extrusion and moulding, and pre-processing for frying.
The overall purpose of ultra-processing is to create branded, convenient (durable, ready to consume), attractive (hyper-palatable) and highly profitable (low-cost ingredients) food products designed to displace all other food groups. Ultra-processed food products are usually packaged attractively and marketed intensively.
You’re making the same “the science isn’t settled” argument that right wing media relies on to stoke climate change denial.
In reality, science is never settled, and there is a huge amount of rigorous scientific debate around the definition of UPFs that is narrowing in on it; it is just flat out not the case that the term means nothing. That is something that manufacturers of UPFs want you to accept.
Ideally, the food consists exclusively of the ingredients you intend to consume. “Ultra processed” as I understand it means the ingredients list contains many things that “have” to be there due to the intermediate steps to get it into your mouth (including marketing/presentation).
The most obvious ones are things that make it shelf-stable for months or years, but the less obvious ones are additives that mask flavors that were inadvertently added by the machines responsible for cooking, cutting, and packaging the food. Apparently they figured out decades ago that salt is good at hiding the taste of metal…
So if you instead just buy some oats and sugar and put it together yourself, you circumvent all of that tomfoolery.
I don’t think Americans eat healthy, but “ultra processed” not defined by any metric is in favor of the manufacturer. Something can be unprocessed and unhealthy and vice versa. Better regulation would help.
The article claims instant oatmeal is bad because it’s sugary, salty, and has other additives then goes on to recommend eating oatmeal and adding sugar yourself. I’m not sure I understand why it’s much better for you.
This is the shit that grinds me. You have the world’s information at your finger tips and you’re making a wild claim that there isn’t a definition for something and basing your argument around that. You have gone this far in your life with the belief that there is no definition “but any metric” for Ultra Process foods?
Don’t you think that’s a little absurd to think this? I mean, it’s literally in the word. Not processed – ultra processed; meaning, roughly, that the food or ingredients in that food are processed again after initial processing.
What I will grant you is that this word is sometimes thrown around inappropriately. You (and us all) have every right to be upset by this confusion and misrepresentation.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/what-know-about-processed-and-ultra-processed-food
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/un-decade-of-nutrition-the-nova-food-classification-and-the-trouble-with-ultraprocessing/2A9776922A28F8F757BDA32C3266AC2A
Is it wrong for me to want my own extruder to make puffed starchy treats? I have a hankering for chile lime ginger corn puffs but no one makes them.
I also want a solar powered freeze drier/sublimator.
Well said!
Imagine doing all that and not reading the article.
You’re making the same “the science isn’t settled” argument that right wing media relies on to stoke climate change denial.
In reality, science is never settled, and there is a huge amount of rigorous scientific debate around the definition of UPFs that is narrowing in on it; it is just flat out not the case that the term means nothing. That is something that manufacturers of UPFs want you to accept.
Edit:
deleted by creator
Ya, agreed.This is the same thing as “natural” foods. Just doesn’t make much sense in any context that matters from a health perspective.
Ideally, the food consists exclusively of the ingredients you intend to consume. “Ultra processed” as I understand it means the ingredients list contains many things that “have” to be there due to the intermediate steps to get it into your mouth (including marketing/presentation).
The most obvious ones are things that make it shelf-stable for months or years, but the less obvious ones are additives that mask flavors that were inadvertently added by the machines responsible for cooking, cutting, and packaging the food. Apparently they figured out decades ago that salt is good at hiding the taste of metal…
So if you instead just buy some oats and sugar and put it together yourself, you circumvent all of that tomfoolery.