Thu, Sep-28-23, 03:36
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Is ultra-processed food bad for you? Not always, scientists say
Quote:
Is ultra-processed food bad for you? Not always, scientists say
Ultra-processed food is not the enemy and can sometimes even be good for us, leading scientists have said in a call for more nuance in the public debate over its health effects.
Professor Robin May, the chief scientific adviser to the Food Standards Agency, said that in the rush to demonise the foods, we are in danger of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” – pointing to a variety of foods or additives, such as sweeteners, whole grain bread or fortified breakfast cereals, that are often classed as ultra-processed but can do a lot of good.
In recent years health campaigners have blamed ultra-processed foods (UPF) for an epidemic of ill health. This year Chris van Tulleken, the doctor and television presenter, released a bestselling book, Ultra-Processed People, which argued that the availability of these foods was making us eat more and do so more unhealthily.
The backlash against the foods, which are typically mass-produced and are often loosely defined as the sort of foods your granny would not recognise, began in Brazil, where in 2014 the government advised its citizens to avoid them entirely. Brazilian government advised people to “make natural or minimally processed foods the basis of your diet”.
Nutritionists have now said that talking about them as a single category makes little sense — and there was scant evidence that the act of processing, rather than the ingredients themselves, matters.
“When we look at UPFs, that definition is variable, complicated and indeed it’s actually unworkable,” Professor Janet Cade, leader of the nutritional epidemiology group at the University of Leeds, said.
“No two experts rate specific foods the same way. Think about the carrot.” A carrot on its own, she said, is definitively unprocessed. Using one of the standard measures of processing, though “a canned carrot suddenly becomes processed. Then if it was chopped and packaged in a pre-prepared ready meal it would by ultra-processed. But the nutritional composition of that carrot has changed very little.”
She said one source of confusion was that it is correct that much food classed as ultra-processed is bad for you, but there were obvious reasons that were unrelated to the processing itself. “Much of the UPF is high in fat, sugar and salt. But actually it’s likely that it’s those nutrients rather than anything else [that matter].”
This most likely explains many of the results from studies, which have shown that people offered an ultra-processed diet ate more, and that people who eat more UPF have more heart problems.
Professor Pete Wilde, of the Quadram Institute in Norwich, said that by demonising UPF there was a risk of alienating food companies who were working on plant protein foods, which would be healthy, but still ultra-processed.
May said that in many cases, these foods can be helping people, giving breakfast cereal as an example. Breakfast cereal is often cited as ultra-processed but part of the processing involves adding vitamins and minerals.
“If you have, for example, children who previously might not have had any breakfast, a breakfast cereal where they’re getting their vitamins and minerals is a big step forward,” he said. “The comparison with what the alternative would be is also really important here.”
Ultra-processed, yet not unhealthy
The most common classification of food processing is known as the NOVA system (Tom Whipple writes). This has four groups: Group 1 food is unprocessed or minimally processed. Group 2 is culinary ingredients (salt, oil, starch). Group 3 is processed, which includes homemade bread and cured meat. Group 4 is ultra-processed, “made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives, with little if any intact Group 1 food”.
In general, there is a correlation between the level of processing and the fat, sugar and salt content. Some nutritionists argue, though, that since the best evidence is that that content — which is already on labels — is the main reason the foods are harmful, the term “ultra-processed” is unhelpful. They also point to anomalies of foods generally considered ultra-processed which can be healthy. These include:
• Wholegrain bread
• Wholegrain cereals
• Fortified cereals
• Baked beans
• Tofu
• Plant-based meat substitutes
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...s-say-jd05qflg5
Looks like the food processing industry are staging a fight back. Hardly surprising really when they see their profits being threatened. |
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Suggested by KeyTones and Dr Naiman on X, I'm not afraid of its 5 g net carbs with 11g protein, made with all sorts of ultra-processed ingredients and plant proteins. Kicks up an already high protein first meal. High Satiety per Calorie works because….you eat less. (Without hunger!)
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