Those with any interest at all in nutrition and have been conscious over the past five years or so are no doubt aware of a torrent of literature blaming a lot of health woes on ultraprocessed foods.
In an opinion piece by American MD F. Perry Wilson, he states that, “For the most part, such people would have a pretty good sense of whether they were ultraprocessed or not. For example, the classic [American] Oscar Mayer wiener )or hotdog sausage) is ultraprocessed as it contains multiple additives like sodium lactate, dextrose, glucose, as well as ‘mechanically separated meat.’
“In contrast, a handful of almonds is not ultraprocessed. In fact, on the standard NOVA processing scale — which goes from a score of 1 for unprocessed or minimally processed foods to 4 (ultraprocessed) — a handful of almonds is a 1. However, most almond milks are technically ultraprocessed foods, whereas most regular milk isn’t. In other words, ultraprocessed doesn’t always mean less healthy. But for the most part, ultraprocessed foods are worse for us than their less-processed alternatives.
“Up until now, deciding what foods are ultraprocessed was somewhat subjective. However, there’s a new tool available that takes the guesswork out of this process. It will be crucial for researchers, but also for consumers trying to eat less-processed foods. That’s because in general, ultraprocessed foods are really bad for you, but maybe not entirely for the reason we think.
“Giulia Menichetti and colleagues, writing in Nature Food, have developed a machine-learning model that can ingest any ingredient list — like the kind that appears on virtually every packaged item you buy in the grocery store — and spit out a food processing (FPro) score that tells us exactly how processed this specific food is.
“The main reason ultraprocessed foods are so bad for us is that they are simply easier to eat. Their additives include chemicals to keep the food fresh longer — so it stays soft if it’s supposed to be soft, and crunchy if it’s supposed to be crunchy. They add salts, spices, and oils that are tasty. Grains will have been stripped of fibre so that they are easier to chew and have what is considered to be a better ‘mouthfeel’. These are all designed by very smart scientists to be highly delicious, easy to eat and as close to addictive as possible.
“So, while we can use FPro scores to choose the better options for us within a food category — the less-processed cheesecake over the more-processed cheesecake – but the problem is that the healthier one, the one with the lower score, may not taste as good. We need to learn to be okay with that. This is how we break the cycle of ultraprocessed foods. We have to learn to enjoy food that doesn’t smack us straight in the tastebuds the moment it goes in our mouths, that doesn’t give a dopamine rush just from the smell alone. We have to learn to love real food again.”
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