Eating For Health

Everyone has heard of “processed foods”.   But now they talk about “ultra-processed” foods.   When teaching nutrition we did talk about why processed foods can be unhealthy but only recently has the term “ultra-processed” foods come into vogue.   In a previous blog post, Should You Avoid Ultraprocessed Food? , I noted that some of my students say that to eat healthy one should avoid “processed food”.   What they did not seem to understand is that most of the food we eat is processed to some extent.   Whole wheat bread is a healthy choice but bread is a “processed food”.   They harvest the grain, mill the grain, make the flour and then make the bread.   Cereal, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, 100% juice – all are processed to some extent.   But now there is “ultraprocessed food”.   These foods are not only highly processed but often contain a lot of added sugar, salt and fat as well as preservatives and many have artificial coloring ...

Hard to avoid “processed” food.   Some of my students say that to eat healthy one should avoid “processed” food.   But most of the food we eat is “processed” to some extent.   Eating whole wheat bread is healthy but bread is “processed” as they harvested the grain, milled the grain, made the flour and then made the bread.   Cereal, even whole grain cereal, is processed.   Canned vegetables are processed as is canned fruit in syrup.     But some food is “ultraprocessed” so much so that this processing adversely affects the nutritional processing of the food.   What are ultraprocessed foods and how is the nutritional value of this type of food affected?   Are there any consequences to your health if you eat a lot of ultraprocessed food? What are ultraprocessed foods ? Not only are these foods processed but often these foods have lots of added sugar, salt, and fat as well as preservatives and many have artificial colors.   Foods that ...