The Truth About Ultraprocessed Foods

In a recent survey on behalf of the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), 70% of British adults didn’t know what they term “ultra-processed” meant or which foods fall into this category.

Confusion extends beyond the obvious UPFs such as cakes, biscuits, white bread, but also includes foods such as baked beans, low fat yoghurts or pasta sauce which may not be the worst things to put in your trolley and could be part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Which foods should we include more and less of? What are the negative implications of this dark corner of the food industry that represents a whopping 30% of the daily calories consumed in the UK! That honestly scares me. These foods weren’t even in existence 50 years ago.

With so many new eating styles including low carb, high protein, keto, low fat – I could go on but surely the healthiest diet is the least processed. Cooking from scratch using whole fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and unprocessed foods is going to optimise nutrition and gives us control over how much salt, sugar, fats and additives are in our diet.

What are UPF’s?

Ultra-processed foods (UPF) are not aligned with our biology, difficult for us to breakdown and a burden on our body systems. To think they weren’t even in existence just 50 years ago, these new engineered foods are made in factories by food technicians by adding a drop of flavour, a hint of colour and a chemical to stabilise and prolong shelf life.

What do UPF’s do to us?

“Some of the adverse health outcomes from UPFs consumption was associated with overall cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, overweight and obesity, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, overall cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer, gestational obesity, adolescent asthma and wheezing, and frailty” Abstract https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-020-00604-1

Diets high in processed foods are associated with higher risk of disease so it is well worth avoiding the worst ones Download your FREE guide to the worst of the worst UPF’s here

UPF’s increase fat storage

UPFs are commonly a source of simple carbohydrates which break down very quickly into glucose in our blood. This results in a sudden rise in glucose followed by a sudden drop. It is insulins job to help glucose get inside cells to create energy but over time our cells can become desensitised to insulin – this is called insulin resistance. This leaves glucose floating around with nowhere to go until your body does a very clever thing and pops it into a fat cell to keep us safe; voila! Weight gain, fat around the middle.

UPF have a stronger effect on our metabolism due to the poor composition of these foods driving sugar cravings and snacking. Creating long lasting healthy habits and choices can help you gain control over these hormones,  your weight and health. Eat Better Feel better.

UPF’s and Gut Health

There have been dozens of studies done on the affects of UPFs on our gut microbiome. They disrupt the balance of good bacteria in the gut causing low-grade systemic inflammation and oxidative stress which have been linked to the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinson’s Disease. This may be because a diet high in UPF is also low in fresh fruit, vegetables and fibre which is critical for healthy bowel movements to eliminate toxic waste and keeps our good gut bacteria alive. Low fibre diets are highly correlated with higher risk of gut problems and anxiety and depression. You can read more about this link and how I can help here in my blog Anxiety and The Gut.

Minimally Processed Vs Ultra Processed

It is a minefield out there! Not only have supermarkets given over aisles to UPF;s (just look at the amount of cereal boxes) and conveniently placed some at the end of aisles to add to our trolleys for those last minute knee-jerk bad choices that your kids beg you for! These foods can cause havoc with our health. Here is what to look out for so you can become a label-boss and make healthier choices.

Unprocessed foods

So let’s get clear on what unprocessed foods are. They are foods that look exactly like their name: an orange is an orange, a cabbage is a cabbage etc., fruit, vegetable, beans, pulses, eggs, fish, meat, milk, seeds, nuts, fresh herbs. That was quite simple. Let’s move on..

Minimally processed

Minimally processed are foods that have gone through a process to make it either ready to eat or last longer i.e. pasteurised milk, dried herbs, frozen peas, crushed chilli, yoghurt (naturally fermented) etc. but key note is that there are no added ingredients. These aren’t the worst foods to choose so its important to take a balanced view as including dried herbs and spices for example have many health benefits.

Processed

Processed foods can begin to enter dodgy ground from a health perspective in this group with added sugars, fats, salts and flavours to enhance shelf life and taste i..e. cured and smoked meats, smoked fish, most bread. There are also refined carbohydrates such as white sugar, and white flour which have been processed removing the brown exterior of wheat grain which contains valuable nutrients; magnesium, zinc, B vitamins and fibre which we need to make energy.

Refined Carbohydrates

The white flour and white sugar used in so many processed foods are one of the biggest health hazards as they drive up blood sugar levels and insulin which is the root cause of the obesity epidemic our nation is facing. Compared to complex carbohydrates found in fruit and vegetables which we know to be a healthy part of a balanced diet.

The Big, Bad Ultra-processed

Ultra-processed foods contain ingredients that you wouldn’t normally have at home in your kitchen. The names of these ingredients are words we often can’t pronounce or recognise as many will be chemicals used as flavourings, stabilisers, colourings, sweeteners and preservatives.

Pre-packaged meal and takeaway meals, processed meats such as sausages, salami, soft drinks, fizzy drinks, cakes, buns, pastries, biscuits, industrialised bread, gravy, sauces, desserts, yoghurts. These foods do not exist in nature without a helping hand from a laboratory. The worst culprit which targets our youngsters are the drinks! They are even labelled with name which imply they are healthy for us i.e. “sugar free”.

A plain yoghurt which is minimally processed becomes ultra-processed with the addition of stabilisers and colourings but may be sold with an enticing picture of fresh fruit on the front to give it a health halo.

Watch out for unusually strong coloured foods as the colourings have some evidence of crossing the blood-brain barrier and disrupting neurotransmitters causing adverse effects. This is especially apparent in children diagnosed with ADHD, ADD, and autism. This is demonstrated in an article written by Bernard Weiss in 2012 Synthetic Food Colors and Neurobehavioral Hazards: The View from Environmental Health Research

“For certain susceptible children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other problem behaviors, the data suggest that their condition may be exacerbated by exposure to a number of substances in food, including, but not limited to, synthetic color additives” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3261946/

Which one is worse?

Take spreadable butter as an example; here is the ingredient list from a well-known spreadable butter:

Water, Vegetable Oils in varying proportions (42%) (Rapeseed, Palm, Sunflower), Buttermilk (5%) (Milk), Salt (1.4%), Emulsifiers (Sunflower Lecithin, Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Acid (Citric Acid), Flavourings, Colour (Carotenes), Vitamin D

Compare this to a pat of real butter, which just contains milk and salt.

Download your free guide today:

FREE DOWNLOAD; 5 WORST ULTRA-PROCESSED FOODS TO AVOID 

Ultra-processed yet still healthy?

There are some foods that are commonly consumed from the UPF category that are considered by the majority as “healthy”; baked beans, alternative milks, soy products. Baked beans are a great source of fibre, magnesium, protein and can certainly be used as part of a healthy diet but some are loaded with sugar. The main rule is to check labels for the amount of sugar “per serving” and the number of ingredients – remember that less is more.

Foods that contain five or more ingredients is likely to be ultra-processed. Foods that have a long shelf life will contain preservatives. However, long-life milk, which is pasteurised at an ultra-high temperature (UHT) isn’t classified as ultra-processed because it doesn’t contain preservatives. Check labels for common preservatives such as sodium benzoate, nitrate and sulphite.

Take back control! Healthy eating with me

If you have lost your way through lockdown, or still confused over what to eat and want a healthy re-set with heaps of healthy inspiration and want to lose some weight without dieting then join my next online healthy eating programme Eat Better Feel Better programme today. I will be there every step of the way to guide you on what to eat, what not to eat and how to make these healthy habits stick so you never have to diet again!

Previous members who joined the programme last year have lost a stone and kept it off. This is life changing programme and you only need to do it once. You can listen to a previous member Simone here to find out how it helped them.

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Disclaimer: Any information or guidance provided is not a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of your doctor or healthcare provider.