Several articles on NPR got us looking at ultra-processed “foods”, the fun, foodish-flavored industrial products you can EAT! General advice… stay away from them as much as you can, eat fresh food you can identify, exercise a little, and you’ll be much better off. But if nutritional advice from your auto mechanic isn’t something you can depend on, then take a look at these articles from people who are much more qualified…
What we know about the health risks of ultra-processed foods, Maria Godoy on NPR, May 2023
This morning, while tidying up my office, I found an open box of packaged coconut and chocolate cookies that I’d bought sometime last year. The “use by” date had come and gone more than eight months ago. Curious, I took a small bite. They still tasted pretty darn good. A closer look at the ingredient list revealed some things I’ve certainly never baked with, including carrageenan and sorbitan tristearate…
From anxiety to cancer, the evidence against ultra-processed food piles up, Allison Aubrey on NPR, Mar 2024
At a time when Americans consume more than half of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods, there is increasing evidence that eating too many of these foods can make us sick. A study published in the British Medical Journal finds people who consume high amounts of these foods have an increased risk of anxiety, depression, obesity, metabolic syndrome, certain cancers including colorectal cancer and premature death. The data come from more than 9 million people who participated in dozens of studies…
An ultra-processed diet made this doctor sick. Now he’s studying why, Allison Aubrey on NPR, Jul 2023
Eating processed food is nothing new. Humans have been crushing grains to make bread for thousands of years. But in recent decades, our food supply has shifted, with an increasing number of ultra-processed products made with fillers, additives, stabilizers and synthetic ingredients that our grandparents wouldn’t recognize. A recent analysis by the Access to Nutrition Initiative finds about 70% of food products sold in the U.S. are unhealthy — and much of the food can be classified as ultra-processed…
It’s Not Just Salt, Sugar, Fat: Study Finds Ultra-Processed Foods Drive Weight Gain, Maria Godoy on NPR, May 2019
Over the past 70 years, ultra-processed foods have come to dominate the U.S. diet. These are foods made from cheap industrial ingredients and engineered to be super-tasty and generally high in fat, sugar and salt. The rise of ultra-processed foods has coincided with growing rates of obesity, leading many to suspect that they’ve played a big role in our growing waistlines. But is it something about the highly processed nature of these foods itself that drives people to overeat? A new study suggests the answer is yes…
Are we eating too many ultra-processed foods? Here’s how to cut back without cutting corners, Ella Walker in the Independent, Jan 2025
It’s hard to look at a packet of Monster Munch or a chocolate biscuit now without the words “ultra-processed food” (UPF) flashing through your brain. It’s almost enough to put you off, but then you get sucked in by the nostalgia factor of Frazzles or a desperate need to dunk a Hobnob in a cup of tea. Or maybe not… You might even be putting them back on the supermarket shelf when you realise half the ingredients are pure gobbledegook; a confusing blur of additives, emulsifiers, preservatives and flavour enhancers, none of which resemble any real ingredients you could buy individually.
The Real Reason Ultraprocessed Foods Are Ruining Our Health, Dr. Perry Wilson on MedScape, Jan 2025
If you have any interest at all in nutrition and have been conscious over the past 5 years or so, you are no doubt aware of a torrent of literature blaming a lot of health woes on ultraprocessed foods. If I were to show you some foods, for the most part you’d have a pretty good sense of whether they were ultraprocessed or not. Let’s find out…
Whole Foods vs. Walmart: New research reveals hidden realities of ultra-processed foods in stores, Cyrus Moulton in Northeastern Global News, Jan 2025
Researchers with the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University have found that despite the abundance of food options available on grocery shelves most contain processed or ultra-processed ingredients. Northeastern researchers analyzed ingredient lists of food available online from Target, Whole Foods and Walmart. The results were collected in GroceryDB, an online database of over 50,000 foods and it is searchable on the website Truefood. The study reveals the degree of food processing, empowering consumers to make informed choices.
