A question I am often asked is does this mean all processed food is bad for you?
There is a big difference between processed food and ultra processed food. An example is cheese made the traditional way using milk and rennet or lemon is processed, the tube of smoked cheese that has had “natural flavours” added to it to produce the smoked flavour rather than being smoked in a smokehouse is UPF.
So it is the extent and nature of that processing that significantly impact foods’ nutritional value and therefore health implications.
Some examples of processed foods are:
· Tinned or Canned vegetables and fruits: just check for stabilisers – often the food in the World food aisle or the own brand tins don’t have them
· Frozen fruits and vegetables: minimally processed and frozen fast, they retain most of their original nutritional value and are handy to have for a quick meal.
· Pasteurized milk: This process extends shelf life and kills harmful bacteria but if you can don’t get homogenized milk. One way to check the difference is – leave it at home in your fridge – if the fat separates at the top then it’s not homogenised.
· Fermented foods – think the 4 Ks – Kefir, Kombucha, Sauerkraut and Kimchi
· Packaged salads and chopped fruit and veg.
Ultra-processed foods, on the other hand, undergo extensive industrial processing and contain numerous added ingredients. These foods are often designed by very smart food technicians to be highly palatable and convenient, but they typically come at the cost of nutritional value. The processing methods used for ultra-processed foods include hydrogenation, extrusion, molding, and the addition of artificial flavours, colours, emulsifiers, and preservatives.
Examples of ultra-processed foods include:
· Sodas, squashes and flavoured waters: in particular avoid anything with fake sugars that falsely tell our pancreas to release insulin as our taste buds think we are ingesting glucose which can increase our chance of becoming insulin resistant.
· Packaged snacks and sweets and candies: Often high in sugars, colours, artificial sugars and additives or “natural flavours”.
· Instant noodles and soups: avoid their preservatives and artificial flavours.
· Fast food items are nearly always UPF.
Reading food labels closely will help you make better choices.
I ignore the traffic light system on the front as it’s not helpful – for example cheese should be high in fat therefore this is not a good indicator. And any marketing claims on the front are generally worth ignoring too!
So read the back; anything with more than 5 ingredients is often UPF but reading the label more closely will determine if it is. Generally, if an ingredient isn’t in your kitchen at home or you can’t pronounce it you may not want to eat it.
For example; the leading brand of cream cheese here in the UK, contains stabiliser (guar gum) and citric acid. Some supermarket own brands contain citrus fibre to thicken it, but often their cheapest one, as well as the organic version, will just be full fat soft cheese. Some cream cheeses are therefore UPF and some are not – the label on the back tells the difference.
The vegan variety is made up of Water, Coconut Oil, Almond Protein, Oat Flour, Salt, Stabiliser (Locust Bean Gum), Vegan Culture. And the flavoured varieties with herbs etc are made up of Medium Fat Soft Cheese, (why reduce the fat?) Garlic, Salt, Herbs, Stabilisers (Guar Gum, Carrageenan), Acid (Citric Acid) so both of these options are UPF too.
FYI carrageenan is an additive that has been linked to chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cancer so is definitely one to avoid.
I must admit to not always being able to read a food label as the print is too small - I take a photo of the back on my phone and then zoom in!
I hope this makes it a bit easier for you to start reducing the UPFs and happily keep eating the processed foods that have been with us for thousands of years. I can’t imagine life without cheese or coffee.
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