Ultra Processed Food – the nemesis of the superfood
If you’ve got a nice – or even just a functioning set – of kitchen knives, then we have to make the assumption that you do a little bit of cooking for yourself and your family (and friends) and so those knives get put to good use on a regular basis. Unless of course you only use them for opening food packaging…
If it’s the latter, you might be consuming your fair share of the foods that are the subject of this short article – Ultra Processed Foods.
Last time we put together some info on ‘superfoods’, so – for balance! – this time it’s all about the nemesis of superfoods, the dreaded Ultra Processed Foods – UPFs.
Why are UPFs bad for you?
Researchers started looking more closely into UPFs and their effect on human health about twenty years ago and the results of two long term studies that came out a few years ago did not paint a pretty picture. The findings of both studies indicated that high consumption of ultra processed foods was linked with…
- high blood pressure (hypertension)
- heart disease
- strokes
- a general increase in all cause mortality
The first study (which tracked 10,000 women over a 15 year period) found that women who ate the most UPFs were 39% more likely to have high blood pressure than those that ate the least.
The second study (which tracked 325,000 men and women) showed that those participants with the highest consumption levels of UPFs were 24% more likely to have heart attacks, strokes and angina. UPF consumption is also linked to gut inflammation, disrupted regulation of appetite and hormone level alterations, so much so that the impact of UPFs is similar to that of smoking.
How to tell if a food item is a UPF?
A food that you couldn’t possibly make in your own kitchen if you tried
UPFs are not a new thing – they’ve been around for a long time – but it was only back in the 1990s that scientists started to research the nutritional value of these foods. And one research scientist in particular, a Brazilian by the name of Carlos Augusto Monteiro wrote a paper in 2010 titled ‘Uma nova classificação de alimentos’ or ‘A new classification of foods’ which ultimately became known as the NOVA (Portuguese for ‘new’) classification.
This classification system is now used as the standard mechanism for categorising foods by the amount of processing involved in making them.
In his paper Monteiro divided foods into four types – 1) Minimally processed foods, 2) Processed culinary ingredients, 3) Processed foods and 4) Ultra-processed foods.
Although he laid out in precise detail which types of foods belonged in which categories, one of the best rules of thumb is that an ultra processed food is “a food that you couldn’t possibly make in your own kitchen if you tried”. A more direct description has been used by some scientists – ultra processed foods are “edible food-like substances”!
In general the following types of foods are highly likely to be UPFs…
- Energy bars
- Fast food burgers
- Frozen dinners
- Instant noodles
- Packaged cookies/biscuits
- Packaged fruit juices
- Potato chips/crisps
- Processed meats
- Soft drinks
- Sugary cereals
And if you want to find out if a food is a UPF or not when you go shopping, the best thing to do is to check the ingredient list. If any of the following are in the list, it’s very likely to be a UPF…
- Artificial sweeteners
- Emulsifiers
- Flavourings
- Colourings
- Stabilisers
- Starches
Finally, UPFs are also generally high in fat, sugar and salt and low in fibre. Ingredients are listed on food items in order of how much is present, so the higher up the list the fat, sugar and salt are, the more likely it is you’re looking at a UPF.
Want to decrease your UPF consumption?
Did you know? …42% of calories consumed by Australians currently come from ultra processed foods.
We know decreasing your UPF consumption should be easy, but it’s not! A lot of ultra processed foods are tasty, cheap, beautifully packaged and staring you right in the face when you go to the supermarket. Some even claim to be healthy in various ways. Do not be fooled!
It’s probably unrealistic to remove all UPFs from your diet, but you can certainly reduce them. Here are two tips from Chris van Tulleken, who wrote the book ‘Ultra Processed People’…
- If you’re looking for a snack, say a fruit and nut bar, buy nuts and dried fruit instead, or if you’d normally buy a packet of chips, get the plain salted ones, not the flavoured ones
- Plainer cereals are the less likely to be UPFs (eg shredded wheat)
And our tips…
- Cook more at home
- Make up larger batches of food at a time then freeze them for eating during the week
- Try to buy most of your food from the fruit and veg section and the meat and fish sections
- Avoid anything in pretty packaging
This is just a short summary of all the info out there on ultra-processed foods. If you’d like to know more check out these links…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-processed_food
And for a warning on the dangers of stigmatising ultra processed foods…
Main Image: Etienne Girardet on Unsplash
(PS this image – fruit loops – came up at the very top for a search for ‘cereal’)
