ultra-processed food

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pages: 448 words: 123,273

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food by Chris van Tulleken

"Friedman doctrine" OR "shareholder theory", biofilm, carbon footprint, clean water, Columbian Exchange, conceptual framework, cotton gin, COVID-19, delayed gratification, Donald Trump, food desert, Gary Taubes, George Floyd, global supply chain, Helicobacter pylori, Kinder Surprise, longitudinal study, luminiferous ether, meta-analysis, microbiome, NOVA classification, parabiotic, Peter Thiel, phenotype, profit motive, randomized controlled trial, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley startup, Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits, Stanford marshmallow experiment, twin studies, ultra-processed food, Vanguard fund, Walter Mischel, Wayback Machine

I’d rather have five bowls of Coco Pops: the discovery of UPF 1 Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Lawrence M, et al. Ultra-processed foods, diet quality, and health using the NOVA classification system. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019. 2 Ioannidis JPA. Why most published research findings are false. pLoS Medicine 2005; 2: e124. 3 Rauber F, da Costa Louzada ML, Steele EM, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and chronic non-communicable diseases-related dietary nutrient profile in the UK (2008–2014). Nutrients 2018; 10: 587. 4 Rauber et al, 2020. 5 Chang et al, 2021. 6 Rauber F, Steele EM, da Costa Louzada ML, et al. Ultra-processed food consumption and indicators of obesity in the United Kingdom population (2008–2016). pLoS One 2020; 15: e0232676. 7 Martínez Steele E, Juul F, Neri D, Rauber F, Monteiro CA.

Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012; 3: CD007176. 14 Snowdon C. What is “ultra-processed food”? 2022. Available from: https://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com/2022/01/what-is-ultra-processed-food.html. 15 Your Fat Friend. The bizarre and racist history of the BMI. 2019. Available from: https://elemental.medium.com/the-bizarre-and-racist-history-of-the-bmi-7d8dc2aa33bb. 3. Sure, ‘ultra-processed food’ sounds bad, but is it really a problem? 1 Hall KD, Sacks G, Chandramohan D, et al. Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight.

Cellular Metabolism 2019; 30: 67–77. 4 Martini D, Godos J, Bonaccio M, et al. Ultra-processed foods and nutritional dietary profile: a meta-analysis of nationally representative samples. Nutrients 2021; 13: 3390. 5 October 28. Health inequalities and obesity. 2020. Available from: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/health-inequalities-and-obesity. 6 Fiolet T, Srour B, Sellem L, et al. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort. British Medical Journal 2018; 360: k322. 7 Zhong G-C, Gu H-T, Peng Y, et al. Association of ultra-processed food consumption with cardiovascular mortality in the US population: long-term results from a large prospective multicenter study.


Hormone Repair Manual by Lara Briden

Columbine, crowdsourcing, meta-analysis, microbiome, mouse model, Multics, placebo effect, randomized controlled trial, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), stem cell, traumatic brain injury, ultra-processed food

Fat provides valuable fat-soluble nutrients and essential fatty acids, while whole-food carbohydrates provide soluble fibre and resistant starch to help you to feel full, feed gut bacteria and promote healthy estrogen metabolism. Neither fat nor carbohydrate is inherently bad. The problem is ultra-processed food. Avoid ultra-processed food According to the British Medical Journal, ultra-processed foods are ‘formulations of food substances often modified by chemical processes and then assembled into ready-to-consume hyper-palatable food and drink products using flavours, colours, emulsifiers and . . . other cosmetic additives’. Ultra-processed foods include almost all types of junk food, such as chips, prepared desserts, fast food and soft drinks. As you can imagine, they are associated with very bad health outcomes, including insulin resistance, heart disease and fatty liver, which we’ll cover in Chapter 10.

There’s a bidirectional relationship between the microbiome and perimenopause, in that problems with the microbiome can worsen perimenopausal symptoms, and, at the same time, changing hormones can alter the composition of the gut microbiome. That’s why you may be experiencing changes with your digestion. Diet and lifestyle to support digestive health • Reduce alcohol because it can damage the microbiome. • Eat vegetables and healthy starches because they feed friendly bacteria. • Avoid ultra-processed food because it starves friendly bacteria. • Avoid concentrated sugar because it can feed unfriendly bacteria. • Identify food sensitivities such as to wheat and dairy and avoid these foods if they are creating inflammation. • Identify a possible sensitivity to high-amine or nickel-containing foods and reduce them if they are creating inflammation

As you can imagine, they are associated with very bad health outcomes, including insulin resistance, heart disease and fatty liver, which we’ll cover in Chapter 10. Ultra-processed foods are devoid of the nutrients needed by you and the fibre needed by your microbiome. They also commonly contain harmful food additives, high-dose fructose (Chapter 8) and processed vegetable oils. Processed vegetable oils include oils such as soy, corn, canola and cottonseed oil and can contain either or both 1) trans fat, and 2) a high dose of omega-6 fatty acids. Trans fat is an industrially produced oil that’s used by manufacturers to make food crispy and increase shelf-life.


pages: 442 words: 85,640

This Book Could Fix Your Life: The Science of Self Help by New Scientist, Helen Thomson

Abraham Wald, Black Lives Matter, caloric restriction, caloric restriction, classic study, coronavirus, correlation does not imply causation, COVID-19, David Attenborough, delayed gratification, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, fake it until you make it, Flynn Effect, George Floyd, global pandemic, hedonic treadmill, job satisfaction, Kickstarter, lock screen, lockdown, meta-analysis, microbiome, nocebo, placebo effect, publication bias, randomized controlled trial, risk tolerance, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), Sheryl Sandberg, social distancing, Steve Jobs, sugar pill, sunk-cost fallacy, survivorship bias, TED Talk, TikTok, ultra-processed food, Walter Mischel

Intriguingly, the experiments above showed that the extra calories eaten by those on a low-protein diet came from savoury snacks, especially those that tasted like umami, the signature flavour of protein. The protein-deprived volunteers were craving things that tasted like protein, even though they were made of carbs. Our food environment is awash with these kinds of protein decoys – crisps, instant noodles, crackers and so on. They are also known as ultra-processed foods. It’s no surprise that ultra-processed foods, designed by industry to be irresistible, are bad for us. They include delicious common fare such as pizzas, sweets, bread, cakes, mayonnaise, ketchup and ice cream. But it might be that the problem of overconsumption has less to do with these foods being full of fat and carbs, as is often depicted, and more that they are depleted of protein.

But it might be that the problem of overconsumption has less to do with these foods being full of fat and carbs, as is often depicted, and more that they are depleted of protein. They tend to be low in protein because it’s an expensive addition. But when protein is diluted by fats and carbs our appetite for it overwhelms the mechanisms that normally tell us to stop eating fats and carbs. Ultra-processed foods also contain very little fibre, which is filling and so puts a brake on appetite. Their frequent flavouring with umami, which our protein appetite craves, only makes matters worse. As a result, we eat way more than we should. The good news is that you can use these insights to make your five appetites work for you, rather than against you.

In theory, you won’t need to keep track of your carbs and fats at all as your protein appetite will manage them for you. Just make sure you supplement the high-protein foods with whole foods – plant-based items that are processed and refined as little as possible, such as legumes, fruits, vegetables, rice and wholegrain cereals. Most important, avoid ultra-processed foods. Keep them out of the house. You will eat them if they are there. They are designed to be irresistible. If you follow these steps, the rest should be easy. All you have to do is listen to your appetites: they will guide you towards a healthy and satisfying diet. That is what they evolved for: to work for you, not for food companies.


pages: 299 words: 81,377

The No Need to Diet Book: Become a Diet Rebel and Make Friends With Food by Plantbased Pixie

Albert Einstein, confounding variable, David Attenborough, employer provided health coverage, fake news, food desert, meta-analysis, microaggression, nocebo, placebo effect, publication bias, randomized controlled trial, sugar pill, ultra-processed food

But we’ve now moved beyond simply having a dichotomy of ‘processed’ and ‘unprocessed’; we also have the rise of the ‘ultra-processed’ foods. There is no current consistent definition of what amount of processing makes a food ‘ultra-processed’. At what point does a food move from the ‘processed’ to ‘ultra-processed’ category? Because there’s no consensus, it’s often used to mean ‘mass produced’, ‘factory-made’, ‘low cost’ or ‘low class’. It’s certainly not ‘posh’ food. But what about ‘wellness’ brands? Just like how with ‘junk food’ wellness brands are exempt, the same goes with ‘ultra-processed’ foods. Those energy balls technically count as ultra-processed too.


pages: 326 words: 88,968

The Science and Technology of Growing Young: An Insider's Guide to the Breakthroughs That Will Dramatically Extend Our Lifespan . . . And What You Can Do Right Now by Sergey Young

23andMe, 3D printing, Albert Einstein, artificial general intelligence, augmented reality, basic income, Big Tech, bioinformatics, Biosphere 2, brain emulation, caloric restriction, caloric restriction, Charles Lindbergh, classic study, clean water, cloud computing, cognitive bias, computer vision, coronavirus, COVID-19, CRISPR, deep learning, digital twin, diversified portfolio, Doomsday Clock, double helix, Easter island, Elon Musk, en.wikipedia.org, epigenetics, European colonialism, game design, Gavin Belson, George Floyd, global pandemic, hockey-stick growth, impulse control, Internet of things, late capitalism, Law of Accelerating Returns, life extension, lockdown, Lyft, Mark Zuckerberg, meta-analysis, microbiome, microdosing, moral hazard, mouse model, natural language processing, personalized medicine, plant based meat, precision agriculture, radical life extension, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ray Kurzweil, Richard Feynman, ride hailing / ride sharing, Ronald Reagan, self-driving car, seminal paper, Silicon Valley, stem cell, Steve Jobs, tech billionaire, TED Talk, uber lyft, ultra-processed food, universal basic income, Virgin Galactic, Vision Fund, X Prize

., “Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017,” The Lancet 393, no. 10184 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30041-8; Heart Essentials, “Looking at the Link Between Salt and Heart Failure,” Cleveland Clinic, last modified October 26, 2017, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/looking-at-the-link-between-salt-and-heart-failure/. 20Anaïs Rico-Campà et al., “Association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and all cause mortality: SUN prospective cohort study,” BMJ 365 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1949. 21Bernard Srour et al., “Ultra-processed food intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: prospective cohort study (NutriNet-Santé),” BMJ 365 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1451. 22Jonathan Shaw, “A Diabetes Link to Meat,” Harvard Magazine, last modified January-February, 2012, https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/01/a-diabetes-link-to-meat. 23Nathan Donley, “The USA lags behind other agricultural nations in banning harmful pesticides,” Environmental Health 18, no. 1 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-019-0488-0. 24Robert A.


pages: 431 words: 99,919

Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, and Optimizing Your Microbiome by Will Bulsiewicz

autism spectrum disorder, David Strachan, epigenetics, Helicobacter pylori, hygiene hypothesis, Louis Pasteur, Mason jar, medical residency, meta-analysis, microbiome, mouse model, randomized controlled trial, traumatic brain injury, ultra-processed food, zero-sum game

Take a moment to think about that: the sheer volume of man-made chemicals we’re putting into our bodies, and the unrealistic expectation that our microbiota will be able to process and eliminate them without any damage. It’s a shock that we don’t drop dead from this stuff and a total testament to the adaptability of our microbiome, even if this is likely contributing to mass bacterial extinction. It comes as no surprise that every 10 percent increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with more than a 10 percent increased risk of developing cancer and a 14 percent risk of early death. So what happens when you hit American levels of consumption—50 or 60 percent? I don’t think that every food additive is harmful in the long term, but we don’t know and likely will never know.

And, of course, it’s in any products that include wheat, barley, and rye. Since most of us have never even seen raw wheat, it’s fair to acknowledge that almost all gluten-containing foods are processed foods—bread, pasta, pizza, and cereal. And that, my friends, is one of the main reasons that people may feel better when they go gluten-free. The elimination of ultra-processed foods, including refined carbs, is something that I support 100 percent. But does it make sense to categorically eliminate all gluten-containing products, or are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Gluten is a problem for people with celiac disease. They need to be completely gluten-free and there’s no debate.


pages: 279 words: 90,888

The Lost Decade: 2010–2020, and What Lies Ahead for Britain by Polly Toynbee, David Walker

banking crisis, battle of ideas, bike sharing, Boris Johnson, Brexit referendum, Bullingdon Club, call centre, car-free, centre right, collective bargaining, congestion charging, corporate governance, crony capitalism, Crossrail, David Attenborough, Dominic Cummings, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, energy transition, Etonian, financial engineering, first-past-the-post, G4S, gender pay gap, gig economy, Gini coefficient, global village, green new deal, Greta Thunberg, high net worth, housing crisis, income inequality, industrial robot, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), James Dyson, Jeremy Corbyn, Large Hadron Collider, low interest rates, manufacturing employment, mass immigration, moral panic, mortgage debt, North Sea oil, offshore financial centre, opioid epidemic / opioid crisis, payday loans, pension reform, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, quantitative easing, Right to Buy, Saturday Night Live, selection bias, smart meter, Uber for X, ultra-processed food, urban renewal, working-age population

The likes of Oscar-winner Olivia Colman and Luther star Idris Elba said they had been nurtured in their early days by grants and by subsidised arts organisations and venues. Altered States Excited talk about altering eating habits was much heard but turned out not to be a reliable statistical guide. Kebab shops were not going out of business. More than half of the UK’s diet still consisted of ultra-processed food, high in sugar, salt and saturated fat. Across the Channel, about a seventh of the French diet was similarly constituted. Sustainable food consumption became fashionable, and might prove to be a precursor to a major change in habits. A survey by Waitrose (taking in all supermarkets) said one in eight people in the UK were now vegetarian or vegan and one in five flexitarian – and most of them had adopted the habit recently.