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Joined 5 months ago
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Cake day: December 7th, 2024

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  • As you said bleached white flour has been a thing for a very long time, it is considered traditional, people generally don’t include things that have been common for millennia when they think of “ultra-processed”, I actually mentioned this in previous comments. The only other ingredients are vitamins/minerals, you definitely can get bread that isn’t enriched, but again, very few people believe adding a couple common vitamins to basic food is “ultra-processing”.

    Also, depending on how into bread your bakery is, some do get unprocessed wheat corn and work it to the product they want, though I have only seen these in major cities, that can support boutique bakeries, that have Michelin stars . Most will offer non-white flour options that are significantly less processed, and multiple different levels of processing, for the various specific type of bread they are making.



  • It is still more spartan than plex, more of a media library serving framework only. However even people who aren’t particularly well adjusted to tech (like my 75 yo mom), don’t seem to have an issue using it once it is set-up, and younger people with marginal tech expertise seem to be able to set up a server, and clients, with a little time on google. People complain about it not working on a lot of smart TV OSs, but I have not run into this, at least with the most popular ones, Roku, WebOS, TVOS, Google tv, Samsung, Vizio, however I have not tried it with an Apple TV. The biggest complaints I have personally received are mostly secondary features like polished library management interfaces.




  • Do the ingredients not have strange, synthetic additives?

    They do not, each ingredient has to list everything that went into the product you get, and it will say only the stuff you want. If you buy a bag of flour, it will say (type) flour, and maybe give you the average protein content of the flour. If you buy a spice it will say the only ingredient is that spice. So, smaller scale bakers, as in not the “bakeries” in places like Walmart, will not have any of that in their food. If there is something that is heavily processed, in a not traditional manner, it will usually be an aspect that stands out, and you can simply ask them about what they use, like coloring in icing. If they make bread, they make normal bread, that will harden over night, and start molding in a couple days. A lot of places like this will also be happy to explain exactly how they make their products too, as they know that information can be crucial due to allergies, cultural stuff, etc. Most bakeries I know, now, exclusively use coloring that come from juices, spices, herbs, etc., that have vibrant colors. The trade-off is that they will not stay that vibrant for more than a day or two. If you request abnormal colors that are not sourced that way, they will inform you that they will have to use a dye that may be synthetic. I realize this isn’t everywhere, but I live in a small, dying, rust belt, city, so if I can get this kind of service, it should be fairly common outside of truly rural places. Though you might have to leave your suburb to get something in the city.


  • Ok a recent example I have come across.

    I recently had my partner grab a loaf of pumpernickel, or other dark rye, while she was out shopping. Instead of going to the bakery we normally shop at, she grabbed a bag of “pumpernickel” off the shelf, at the super market. It is less than 2% rye. The flour mix is processed with cocoa and an unspecified alkali, to achieve the color, in the absence of enough dark rye flour. They also add an unspecified caramel coloring into the dough to complete the coloring. They then add natural, but otherwise not traditionally used, flavoring to better achieve the flavor of “pumpernickel”, again, minus the proper flour mix. They then add an extract propionic acid, mixed with a synthetic sorbic acid, to extend shelf life. They use synthetic monoglycerides to improve the stability of the emulsification, which both improves texture, and extends shelf life. They add soy based lipid extracts to preserve the “moist” feel of the bread.

    This is what people have in mind when they say ultra-processed. This is, in no way, how you would normally make pumpernickel. This is like a farce of this bread, that is cheaper, and much longer lasting, approximation of bread.


  • At the moment, “processed food” seems more buzz & connotation than substance

    Yes, we both agree on this. Organic, natural, etc. are all, scientifically, ill defined, advertising labels. However, in this particular discussion, people are pointing towards the way it is used in common lexicon, rather than a scientific, or technical one. When your average person says these things, they mean things that have gone through more processing than what was traditionally done, before the point of making a meal from it, or the after processing it goes through to make a meal have as long a shelf life as possible, etc. These processes include things like introducing additives to make the color better, the introduction of extracts, synthesized chemicals, etc., to enhance flavor, improve presentation, extend shelf life, etc. That are not traditional things like salting, smoking, drying, freezing/cooling, etc. That page from Harvard isn’t trying to be an authoritative statement on exactly what “ultra-processed” means to an industry, rather than to be a common framework, for the most general level of understanding, of the contemporary processes that food is put through, that are beyond traditional methodology.