Recently, due to a supermarket mistake, I ended up receiving a part from someone else’s online order. It’s funny that this is exactly what I usually say that nobody should be eating.
Ultra processed foods are created in industrial factories by combining substances extracted from different foods such as starch, fats, protein, sugar and fiber with synthetic ingredients, such as colorings and preservatives. Manufacturers may add hydrogen to oil to make fat solid at room temperature and prevent the oil from going rancid, but these fats are known to cause inflammation.
In a BMJ article, ultra-processed foods were considered “formulations of several ingredients which, besides salt, sugar, oils and fats, include food substances not used in culinary preparations, in particular, flavors, colors, sweeteners, emulsifiers and other additives used to imitate sensorial qualities of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and their culinary preparations or to disguise undesirable qualities of the final product” – https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/3/e009892
The consumption of ultra-processed food are linked to many health conditions and they drive diseases like:
- Weight gain and obesity
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Depression
- Insulin resistance
- Type 2 diabetes
- Dementia
- Alzheimer
- Autoimmune disease
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Cancer, and the list goes on.
Chronic disease is the number one driver of health expenditure and number one cause of death in the world today. This is not an opinion, this is a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease study of 195 countries, the data is very clear.
We must understand what ultra-processed foods are and how to avoid them.
Examples of ultra-processed foods:
- Sodas, fruit flavored and energy drinks
- Fast food
- Donuts, packaged cakes, cookies, muffins
- candy
- Sweetened cereals, granolas with refined sugars
- Flavored yogurts
- Chips, salty snacks, french fries
- Frozen meals and pizzas
- Processed meats like hotdogs, sausages, deli meats
- Processed snacks
- Instant noodles, bouillon cubes, canned soups
- Vegetable and seed oils,
- Mayonnaise, salad dressings
- Ice cream
- Chocolate hazelnut spreads
Instead, we should be eating real, whole foods, minimally processed and if possible, sustainably sourced – organic, ideally regenerative, pasture raised, grass-fed and wild caught small fish.
We have to peel more and unwrap less. Ask yourself a simple question: Is this man-made food or natural, nature-made food, as nature intended it to be?.
I hear it often: “Amelia, but eating healthy is too expensive for most people.”
It depends on your point of view. I think not just in the short term but in the medium and long term. So I see it as an investment, an investment in my health and well-being. You will either pay for healthy food in advance or you will pay for medical issues in the future. The money you think you’re saving now, you’ll spend later on medication, treatments and hospital bills, to “manage” conditions that could have been prevented.
Let’s take back our kitchens and take ownership of our health!
