I’d highly recommend the Maintenance Phase podcast. they have a recent episode specifically about “ultra-processed foods”.
the most important takeaway I had was that there is no agreed-upon definition of what an “ultra-processed” food is. it’s an “I know it when I see it” categorization. which can be fine for everyday life but it’s not how science works.
for example, pretty much everyone agrees French fries aren’t terribly healthy. but are they ultra-processed? you chop some potatoes and throw them in hot oil.
you end up with a circular definition, where “ultra-processed” really means “food that has unhealthy vibes” or “food that everyone knows is unhealthy…you know the ones”. and then studies get published saying they’re unhealthy…which, yeah, of course they are.
They acknowledge this in the article. The four levels of processing used in the University of São Paulo’s classification system are at least a start. Clearly we need to keep learning which aspects of the harmful foods are causing harm, and improving the classifications.
I’m also curious how much of the harm is caused by plastic contamination, either while the foods are being manufactured or picked up afterward from packaging.
I’d highly recommend the Maintenance Phase podcast. they have a recent episode specifically about “ultra-processed foods”.
the most important takeaway I had was that there is no agreed-upon definition of what an “ultra-processed” food is. it’s an “I know it when I see it” categorization. which can be fine for everyday life but it’s not how science works.
for example, pretty much everyone agrees French fries aren’t terribly healthy. but are they ultra-processed? you chop some potatoes and throw them in hot oil.
you end up with a circular definition, where “ultra-processed” really means “food that has unhealthy vibes” or “food that everyone knows is unhealthy…you know the ones”. and then studies get published saying they’re unhealthy…which, yeah, of course they are.
They acknowledge this in the article. The four levels of processing used in the University of São Paulo’s classification system are at least a start. Clearly we need to keep learning which aspects of the harmful foods are causing harm, and improving the classifications.
I’m also curious how much of the harm is caused by plastic contamination, either while the foods are being manufactured or picked up afterward from packaging.