Ultra processed foods finally getting condemned

(Richard M) #1

This article came from NPR. It seems the “bad” food is drawing the attention of a bigger audience not just a small circle.

(Jane) #2

From the article:

“It is possible advisors could recommend limits on ultra-processed foods, though it would likely be difficult to get people to follow them.”

What does getting people to follow their guidelines have to do with the guidelines themselves? Of course a lot of people will ignore it because they are addicted to the “bliss point” that is baked into (pun intended) the ultra processed foods.

They are likely more worried about the affect the backlash from Big Food will have on their careers.

(Jane) #3

And then they follow up with this nonsense that has been repeated so many times it is considered HARD FACT:

" The FDA is also moving towards[ front-of-package labeling] that will flag foods that contain high amounts of sodium, sugar and saturated fat."

Only sugar is the villain in that list * sigh *

(Jane) #4

Same with the “heart healthy” label - pure nonsense - but doesn’t affect me anyways because I mostly shop the edges of the store and only buy a few things from the processed food aisles (Rao spaghetti sauce, pork rinds, etc).

#5

?! Oh my. I am not fully shocked as I have read about something similar on this very forum but it was very surprising back then. Normal people eat normal food, they cook and everything, don’t they? They do here… Sure, not all the time but it’s the default, eating homemade food… Even if one wants something simple, it can be done with not processed and just somewhat processed things (like sausage. it’s about as processed as a homemade one).

And I see saturated fat, salt and energy dense foods are still the enemy… And white flour I suppose. It’s not my enemy personally, it’s just the same as tapioca flour and almost like fruit or vegs… Only the carb content seems a problem. My SO hates too much white flour and I need to put a lot of effort and time into figuring out how to make a bread that isn’t a brick. There are ways but it’s tricky even with 40% white flour content (in the dry matter). And it’s all for me as he doesn’t mind very brown, super dense breads…By the way, he hates added gluten too. I use it galore in my own bread, not like I often eat it as my default woe is carnivore… It’s quite individual what is right for someone, of course those weird ingredient ultraprocessed things aren’t good for anyone. And I am quite against sugar but fruit is sugar too while guides consider added sugar so bad while a ton of fruit essential. Flour is weird too, white is super bad, wholemeal (almost exactly the same as it has everything from the white one) is a must have… I can’t agree with that.

Oh well. Most of my food is simple (egg, dairy, meat. and nowadays it’s mostly meat), my processed items are very good too… I just feel for poor confused people getting BS advice and potential anxiety about eating something with saturated fat or something like that…

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

People have trouble coming up with a good definition of ultra-processed food, but I may have come up with one: The old advice was to chew each mouthful of food 50 times before swallowing. If you can’t even chew it for 5 times before it turns to mush, then it’s ultra-processed and should be avoided.

What do y’all think?

(KM) #7

Maybe, but I had aged Gouda and string beans today, both of which slid down easy as you please.

My go-to is if it contains any ingredient I can’t buy separately in ordinary shopping (Excuse me Sir, what aisle is the sodium acid pyrophosphate in? And is the sodium stearoyl lactylate fresh today?) it’s not coming home with me. Nearly every ultra processed food contains something weird like that. Obviously there are other foods that won’t come home with me either, due to carb count or seed oils or heck, just because I don’t like 'em, but that’s my ultra processed litmus test.

#8

I love soft food so nope.
And I love food so I only chew something for 5 times if it’s SUPER chewy. But if the pieces are tiny, I may swallow even them way earlier.
I would die before I would chew anything 50 times, not like I have any idea what one means… One jaw closing? But that’s a cut (or not even that), not chewing… :thinking:
That is my problem with many things, I have no idea what “one” is.

A chewy, hard thing totally can be ultraprocessed too, can’t it?

I always look at the ingredients and similar things. THAT is what matters, not softness or color or whatever.

I have some vague idea about processed food and that should be enough. I eat my own food anyway, making from one component ingredient and little else. I even make my most important spice mix from individual spices…

Yep, I am very similar. Even with the stuff I just call processed, not ultraprocessed. My sausages should have pork, pork fat, salt and some spices and that’s it :slight_smile: It’s easy to get such ones and I am pleased with them and won’t stop eating them as the alternative would be much worse. I can’t just eat a lot of normal meat every day! (Or if I could, I would really overeat fat. Yes, sausages are super fatty but I use them in moderation, they help with the lean meat I should eat. And with other things… And they are amazing… If I dislike my food, I still can snack on some lovely sausages…)

I can’t be perfect with this but I do try. If I fancy something I can’t buy, I try to make it. Or forget it and make something better even if it’s not similar. I need to make my own version when it’s a very strong desire that just won’t go away.

What processed stuff do I eat…? Dairy, mostly. Nice ingredient list except the stupid abominations I had no idea about before so I must read labels for new brands…

(KM) #9

Yes, isn’t that strange? One common cheap brand of cottage cheese has cultured milk, cream, and salt. Right next and the same price, brand 2 has cultured milk, whey, salt, potassium chloride, modified corn starch, cultured dextrose, artificial color, guar gum, sorbic acid, locust bean gum, citric acid, natural flavors, carrageenan, polysorbate 80, enzymes, and vitamin A palmitate. Why??

#10

More like impossible, regulation won’t fix this, educating more people will. Same broken mindset that thinks speed limits stop people from speeding. Without any “regulation” look how huge the low sugar mindset has picked up, a lot of that has even happened after keto lost it’s fad status, but the lower carb lower sugar seemed to stick, everywhere you look people are into that now.

When Mediterranean and Paleo were in their fad glory, as quick as they lost that status, they fizzled out minus the initial people that were doing that pre-fad. Keto being a fad for 3-4yrs seems to have left a permanent mark though :+1:

(Edith) #11

I think Paleo in a way was too complicated. This food is considered paleo, but this one isn’t. Carbs are okay as long as they are made with casava flour, but this other gluten-free flour is out. I think it was kind of confusing for people who really didn’t want to have to think too much about what they were eating. Keto is easier, just keep your carbs low. Non keto foods naturally drop away without having to think about anything except your carb levels.

With that being said, I think all the keto products that have appeared on the store shelves have muddied the waters, again for people who don’t want to have to think too much about what they are eating. “I’m eating these keto foods. Why am I not losing weight?”

I do think, though, as keto continues to fade, the knowledge gains about sugars and seed oils, especially, will eventually get lost. The food manufacturers will make sure of that.

#12

@kib1: Yes, those things.
I mistakenly bought some not quite mascarpone. It said so but they lied. I was mad. It didn’t only contain starch but it felt awful, the texture and flavor both were totally off!
And after I mistakenly bought a light butter (I knew it was a thing but usually I caught it easily, I was more absent-minded or they were more sneaky, I don’t remember) and super light cream cheese, I got careful. I don’t think I should be careful with mascarpone but sadly, food industry doesn’t work according to my ideas.
There is a vegan thing too that I would catch but I can imagine someone would miss the shade difference between the background and foreground… It’s called “cream like mascarpone” but the mascarpone is big and has contrast while the like is tiny and it’s light green on light green.
One need to be vigilant in the supermarket too.

It had its odd things for sure and some people started to eat tons of oats (Hungarian paleo society or how should I call it banned oats then) while others ate multiple bananas a day…
I did paleo and it was okay enough for me (except it was way too carby as it didn’t limit vegs. I easily did high-carb days using paleo vegs… I didn’t even need fruits or the paleo starches) - except I refused to give up green peas. So I didn’t. But I ate too much carbs so I quickly changed to low-carb. Still stayed pretty close to paleo for a while as it suited me back then.
Now I am super far from paleo on my carnivore-ish… I love and need my dairy just in moderation.

Keto allows basically every items (theoretically, at least but I had to avoid only a very few not so important things) so it felt less restrictive to me even though I loved vegs and fruits.

But carnivore is even simpler and it felt less restrictive and easier at some point, often still do. On some days, keto is easier but I need my carnivore-ish mindset before I happily add all kinds of plants I still like, carbs add up too easily, I already get plenty from my animal items.

But it’s individual too, of course. Each to their own. Paleo always was WAY bigger in my country than keto, at least as far as I could tell. We have paleo shops and webshops galore. I barely ever hear about keto here. And carnivores are pretty much absent (surely some lurking somewhere but I never met any). I ever saw one keto item on a shelf, it was a totally normal fruity oatmeal except it was instant and that’s somewhat abnormal if you ask me. One tiny portion is 20g carbs so it’s keto, someone must have thought.

It surely will be there for the ones who search for it. And I see the dangers of sugars everywhere, it’s one thing all guides and influencers and whatnots tend to agree*. Just added sugar, yes but it’s a big step!

*if anyone here saw exceptions, don’t tell me. I see too many wrong things as it is. some weirdos must exist out there. I don’t talk about the honey sympathizers, I doubt normal people overeat sugar using honey. even if I totally did it for many years… What can I say? Good honey is amazing, one of the most tasty things even despite the sweetness. Fruits can be even tastier though, sometimes a good one touches good pork roast level and that’s my absolute peak, nothing is possibly tastier than that.

Sorry. I talk about things not ultra-processed here too much. I stop.

(KM) #13

My issue with “formal” Paleo was that they didn’t really take regional genetics into consideration, IMO. Sure, South American societies used cassava root, and Samoan culture included loads of coconut and pineapple, but if you didn’t have at least a few of generations of adaptation to those things as primary staples, I think it’s unlikely your body would simply accept them in large quantity.

I agree, eating foods you are already familiar with and simply paring down the list is not only easier, it’s probably less stress on the body and more likely to be effective. Just my opinion.

#14

I don’t think we should eat starches in large quantity anyway… At least the ones who do paleo for a good reason, they quit most high-carb items… I always looked at the high-carb items as just some tiny extra in need (maybe occasionally a bit more). The Hungarian paleo sites I saw didn’t focus on them.
But I am all for individual fine tuning (and quitting if that is the right thing) so if an item isn’t right for someone, don’t eat it. I dropped the carbs as I quickly noticed they keep me fat and my body likes low-carb better anyway. Never ate certain popular paleo things.
I did eat coconut every day, I think it’s pretty normal, it wasn’t a new item and it was just a little anyway and my body had zero problems with it. I know listening to their bodies isn’t the right advice for everyone but it works for me, mine is very keen to tell me what it likes and what it doesn’t since I went low-carb.

I understand if one adds things if the list gets too tiny (because they have some serious blacklist due to some disease or something)… But I don’t consider this a common need. There are so many things to eat, even on diets considered restrictive and if the diet is right, it shouldn’t be nutritionally deficient without the old banned items. I never was the one to add very new things though my recipes surely changed and now I have my 100% egg sponge cakes :smiley: But I always ate sponge cakes (rarely), I just skip the unnecessary parts now (and eat it all the time)… So there is nothing new there.
When I went vegetarian, I cut out very little, the rest was plenty so I never felt the need to add new things. It helped that the special vegetarian things tended to taste bad (but it took several years for me to try some of those) or they just were meh. I had way better normal ingredients. But each to their own, it’s fun to try out things, even I do that. I am too curious not to.

Actually, my curiosity worked against me regarding highly processed things as some were interesting. But 1.5 decades on low-carb changes people (even before, I didn’t get tempted often, I wasn’t that bad. no. homemade cakes tempted me hopelessly, not overprocessed food industry products. and fruits. maybe bread but mostly my own. they are way more enjoyable than nearly all highly processed stuff anyway).