by Ultra-processed food. You’ve probably heard of it. Heck, you probably are eat a lot of it in your time – but you still might not know exactly what it is. Despite the abundance of ultra-processed food (UPF) in our lives (you’ll find it in most kitchens, supermarkets and lunchboxes), awareness of ultra-processed food and its risks is still relatively new, at least to the public. majority of us.
But low UPF recipes and diets have been on the rise lately, thanks in part to best-selling books like Ultra-Processed Peoplewritten by Dr Chris van Tulleken, infectious diseases doctor at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London.
below, Cosmopolitan UK talking to Dr van Tulleken about all things UPF, the benefits of reducing your intake, and why cutting out UPF might be easier said than done (but that doesn’t mean you can’t try extract, if you wish ).
What is ultra-processed food?
Ultra-processed food refers to food that has been ultra-processed during production, often with the addition of ingredients that you wouldn’t normally find in your cupboard if you were trying to recreate the recipe at home (think emulsifiers, preservatives, artificial flavors and the like).
Basically, it’s the opposite of a whole food (think vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts or other foods left in their most natural state), and goes a step beyond processing food by cooking or change using ingredients that a home cook would. his hand.
“There’s a very long, formal definition, but it’s worth saying that if something is wrapped in plastic and contains an ingredient you wouldn’t normally find in a home kitchen, it’s definitely an ultra-processed food,” explains Dr van. Tully Cain.
Thus, UPF often includes ice cream, sausages, crisps, flavored yogurt, and mass-produced bread, to name a few examples.
One easy way to identify UPF is “any food that has a health claim on the package, like low fat, high fiber, whole grain,” says the expert, adding, “anything like that is almost always ultra -processed.”
What are the risks of ultra-processed food?
“We now have very good evidence from thousands of independent studies that link ultra-processed foods to a very wide range of harms and these include cardiovascular disease, such as strokes and heart attacks,” reports Dr van Tulleken.
He says the most obvious risks associated with UPF are weight gain and obesity but there are a range of additional problems that can affect you, whether you gain weight or not. “It causes strokes and heart attacks, metabolic diseases like type two diabetes, anxiety, depression, inflammatory diseases like Crohn’s disease, dementia, cancers (all cancers, but specifically breast and bowel), and then also early death from every reason.”
His message reinforces what we already know: your diet has a big impact on your life. Research suggests that poor diet is killing more people worldwide than tobacco, and when asked what this means, the author was very clear. “I think the evidence is very clear that we mean a bad diet, an ultra-processed diet.”
Are all ultra-processed foods bad for us?
Of course, your next question is probably, ‘Are all ultra-processed foods bad for us?’ This is certainly not the case, according to Dr van Tulleken, who points out that it is not so simple to categorize food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
“If you were to live on a desert island for a year, you’d be much better off with a stack of burgers to live on than a pile of broccoli. You wouldn’t survive a year eating just broccoli,” the expert explains. . So, when it comes to our diets, we better examine our eating patterns. “What we think is really important is that people eat a dietary pattern that is not built on ultra-processed food,” continues Dr van Tulleken.
What does that mean? Well, for many of us, many of our meals are focused on UPF. Think about your lunch, for example. “All our sandwiches are ultra-processed. All our crisps and baked chips are ultra-processed, and our fizzy pop, even the fancy stuff, is ultra-processed,” says Dr van Tulleken, who says we follow similar patterns at dinner. , too. Baked beans, oven chips, fish fingers, sausages, that’s all ultra-processed, according to the pro.
If you’re a vegetarian, you might choose a meat option, but many of these products also “meet the definition of ultra-processed.”
“They come from the same companies and the same system of production that makes the other ultra-processed foods, so they are not manufactured with your health in mind,” but in order to make more money, claims Dr. van Tulleken.
But, please don’t let that panic you. Once again, “There are definitely ultra-processed products that are not harmful. The question is the pattern of the diet,” says the doctor (around one in five people in the UK and USA get 80% of the calories in diet from UPF).
Is it safe to cut out ultra-processed food?
If your next question is ‘How easy is it to reduce my UPF intake?’, it is important to note that there are a number of factors involved and one of them is cost.
“It’s very easy to cook real food cheaply if you have a big kitchen and loads of Tupperware and a deep freezer and a lot of time to do it. But if you don’t have those things, real food is very expensive,” a explains Dr. van Tulleken.
“At the moment in the UK, on average we spend around seven to eight per cent of our household budget on food, and that’s because everything else in our lives is so expensive. So energy, housing, everything other. Real food, for many, many people in the UK at the moment, is unaffordable. They can’t buy good healthy food but we describe it, even if you don’t worry too much about the processing.”
It is therefore understandable that Dr van Tulleken is clear that he does not intend his book to be didactic, but that his aim is to help share information with readers.
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Should I reduce my intake of ultra-processed foods?
“I have no advice for anyone. I want people to eat whatever they want. I just want people to have enough information about the food they buy,” Dr van Tulleken tells us, adding that he believes everyone has a choice.
(However, he wants the government to take action, to prevent UPF from being marketed to children, add warnings to food, and tackle poverty and inequality. “You can have anything you want (to teach children about food, but right now they can’t afford to buy real food,” he said.)
For his part, Dr van Tulleken does not eat much UPF, but takes a different approach with his children. “My kids eat a lot of it,” he says. “They probably get, I’d say, 20% to 30% of their calories from UPF,” explaining that he wants them to be able to eat the same food as their friends, especially at school.
Is ultra-processed food addictive?
To repeat the above, no one is saying you have to give up ultra-processed food. But if you are interested in lowering your intake, you may find the following advice helpful.
“There is now very good evidence that for many people many of these products are addictive, so it may be easier for some people to cut out ultra-processed food completely rather than trying to be modest. I don’t give that as advice. Of course, it’s much more expensive to avoid ultra-processed food altogether,” notes Dr van Tulleken.
What are the benefits of reducing UPFs?
As part of his research, Dr van Tulleken took a high UPF diet for a month to measure the results. “At the end of the diet, I quit immediately, and within 48 hours I felt massively better,” he says.
“If people stop it overnight, they may not feel an immediate improvement, but many people will feel significantly better very quickly. feeling anxious at four in the morning, where there is a little indigestion , bloating, or that we are very windy, those things are quite strongly associated with ultra-processed food.”
So there you have it. All the basics you need to know about UPF. What you choose to do with the information is up to you, but please remember that eating a healthy, balanced diet is important to maintaining good health and ensuring you feel your best, according to NHS guidance . Advice on healthy eating is available on the NHS website.
This article is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
