All Ultra-processed foods are problematic, even plant-based options
It seems so easy, so modern-day! After a busy workday, your ready meal is in and out of the microwave in 7 minutes. Well - that really helps! Unfortunately, speedy food is not always healthy food.
Whereas a piece of fish or chicken with a few herbs or some garlic butter to 'add value' is fine, most ready-meals are confections that are Ultra Processed Foods [UPF's]. UPFs contain potentially dangerous non-food chemicals and often low-quality basic ingredients that have been modified by special techniques to 'improve them'. This means eg to expand them with gums or complex starches, add colour and flavour enhancers, and increase shelf life with preservatives and moisture retainers.
Although they taste and look good they are not 'real' foods and your body behaves differently to them than it does to un-messed about foods. The added chemicals are unsafe [see next section] and affect your metabolism negatively. These foods are both very calorie dense and formulated with extra fat, salt and sugar plus artificial flavouring to make them super-attractive and moreish. They lack essential vitamins and trace elements, are low nutritional value, but have excess calories. Many experts believe that these highly addictive products are responsible for the obesity epidemic we are experiencing.
Until recently, there was little information on the UPFs used in vegan and vegetarian food. Do not be fooled into thinking that everything plant-based is virtuous. Ultra processed meat substitutes and vegan ready-meals are also best avoided. Always check the ingredients list.
What UPF's do to you – some serious issues
1. Make you eat more calories per helping because of high calorie density.
2. Increase your risk of
a. Dementia [all types][1] [reducing UPF intake by 10% reduces dementia risk by 19%!]
b. Type2 diabetes[2] and obesity[3]
c. Coronary heart, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease[4]
d. All cancer and in women breast cancer risk[5]
e. Colorectal cancer[6]
f. Hypertension[7]
g. Your risk of dying from any cause sooner than expected.[8]
3. In women there are positive associations for mortality overall, breast, and ovarian cancers[9].
Plant based food that is ultraprocessed also had serious hazards. A recent study based on the UK Biobank, from Imperial College London showed plant-sourced UPF consumption was associated with a 5% increased risk of Coronary Vascular Disease (Hazard Ratio 1.03–1.07) and a 12% higher mortality (HR 1.05–1.20). The contribution of all UPF was linked to higher CVD risk and mortality . The researchers say that, based on the available evidence, nutritional guidelines promoting plant-based diets should not focus just on reducing the amount of meat and other animal-products people eat, but also on the importance of the level of processing involved in the food, and avoiding UPFs. [10]
How do I know if my food is ultraprocessed?
You can identify UPF's by looking at the list of ingredients. When you see a long ingredients list, with [some or many] items that are not actual foods you would add to your own cooking then that is a UPF. 'Food-based' ingredients are not necessarily the same as food. Reconstituted potato starch is not the same in food terms as potato. When combined with sweeteners, colourings, stabilisers and preservatives and put through multiple 'un-natural' processes to formulate the end-products such as the ever popular brand Pringles or with added artificial BBQ flavour to make some other branded snack it is impossible to predict how the body will respond to it and it certainly isn't 'food'.
Other UPF examples include ice cream, fizzy drinks, hot dogs and some oven chips; ready-made sauces, industrialised bread, breakfast cereals, sausages, burgers and other reconstituted meat products, confectionery, biscuits, pastries, buns and cakes.
How UPF's damage you
These calorie dense foods, are addictive, increase calorie intake and if a major part of your diet mean at least 500 calories more in per day than eating real food. That soon makes you fat and with major knock on effects. UPFs lack essential nutrients and are low on fibre. This means they wreck your gut microbiome, make you short on vitamins and trace elements and create the scenario that leads to the harms mentioned above.
What about Minimally Processed Foods [MPFs]
Certain foods like eg baked beans are processed to preserve them. The basic item eg cannellini or haricot beans IS real food. The question is how much sugar, salt and other additives are in the ingredient list. There is no harm in minimally processed items like onion powder or garlic powder instead of the actual vegetable but check the salt and sugar content. If there is no added sugar you are OK! Breakfast cereals are another case in point. Shredded wheat or plain oats are not ultraprocessed but a high proportion of breakfast brands including many 'healthy' muesli type products either contain non-food items or high amounts of sugar. 'Fruit sugar' ie fructose, is not fruit it is sugar.
Fermented foods are minimally processed but fermentation provides a beneficial source of 'good' bacteria' in eg kefir, yoghurt, cheese, sauerkraut and kimchi. General guidance on ham, bacon and salami is to limit intake eg just 1 meal per week to limit nitrate and nitrite intake. Salami is more processed than ham or bacon.
Speed and convenience in meal preparation
Ultraprocessed food seems - just easier - and there is some intensive marketing to make it attractive. But is peeling a banana, eating an apple or a handful of berries so difficult? If it must be a dry food, then nuts and seeds are nature's convenience foods.
To cook a non-processed meal in a similar time to a ready meal is an easy skill to learn. Using a microwave or steaming food or stir-frying are all quick techniques and air-fying is a new addition to the kitchen toolkit. Ready prepared vegetables are not processed and there are plenty of high-quality frozen ingredients. It seems that every chef known to man has written a book of 'quick and easy' recipes and if you prefer, you can use the internet to find a recipe. Just google the ingredients you have to hand and options appear!
Summary
Doctors and nutritionists are aware of the dangers of UPFs but the message is new to most ordinary Joes or Joannas. There is extensive discussion on the internet in reputable places such as BBC Food or ZOE health and plenty of science as shown by the references here.
[1] Li H, Li S, Yang H, Zhang Y, Zhang S, Ma Y, Hou Y, Zhang X, Niu K, Borne Y, Wang Y. Association of Ultraprocessed Food Consumption With Risk of Dementia: A Prospective Cohort. Neurology. 2022 Jul 27:10.1212/WNL.0000000000200871. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200871. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35896436.
[2] Srour B, Fezeu LK, Kesse-Guyot E, Allès B, Debras C, Druesne-Pecollo N, Chazelas E, Deschasaux M, Hercberg S, Galan P, Monteiro CA, Julia C, Touvier M. Ultraprocessed Food Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Among Participants of the NutriNet-Santé Prospective Cohort. JAMA Intern Med. 2020 Feb 1;180(2):283-291. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.5942. PMID: 31841598; PMCID: PMC6990737.
[3] Beslay M, Srour B, Méjean C, Allès B, Fiolet T, Debras C, Chazelas E, Deschasaux M, Wendeu-Foyet MG, Hercberg S, Galan P, Monteiro CA, Deschamps V, Calixto Andrade G, Kesse-Guyot E, Julia C, Touvier M. Ultra-processed food intake in association with BMI change and risk of overweight and obesity: A prospective analysis of the French NutriNet-Santé cohort. PLoS Med. 2020 Aug 27;17(8):e1003256. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003256. PMID: 32853224; PMCID: PMC7451582.
[4] Srour B, Fezeu LK, Kesse-Guyot E, Allès B, Méjean C, Andrianasolo RM, Chazelas E, Deschasaux M, Hercberg S, Galan P, Monteiro CA, Julia C, Touvier M. Ultra-processed food intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: prospective cohort study (NutriNet-Santé). BMJ. 2019 May 29;365:l1451. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l1451. PMID: 31142457; PMCID: PMC6538975.
[5] Fiolet T, Srour B, Sellem L, Kesse-Guyot E, Allès B, Méjean C, Deschasaux M, Fassier P, Latino-Martel P, Beslay M, Hercberg S, Lavalette C, Monteiro CA, Julia C, Touvier M. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort. BMJ. 2018 Feb 14;360:k322. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k322. PMID: 29444771; PMCID: PMC5811844.
[6] Romaguera D, Fernández-Barrés S, Gracia-Lavedán E, Vendrell E, Azpiri M, Ruiz-Moreno E, Martín V, Gómez-Acebo I, Obón M, Molinuevo A, Fresán U, Molina-Barceló A, Olmedo-Requena R, Tardón A, Alguacil J, Solans M, Huerta JM, Ruiz-Dominguez JM, Aragonés N, Fernández-Villa T, Dierssen-Sotos T, Moreno V, Guevara M, Vanaclocha-Espi M, Lozano-Lorca M, Fernández-Tardón G, Castaño-Vinyals G, Pérez-Gómez B, Molina AJ, Llorca J, Gil L, Castilla J, Pollán M, Kogevinas M, Amiano P. Consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks and colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer. Clin Nutr. 2021 Apr;40(4):1537-1545. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2021.02.033. Epub 2021 Feb 27. PMID: 33743289.
[7] Barbosa SS, Sousa LCM, de Oliveira Silva DF, Pimentel JB, Evangelista KCMS, Lyra CO, Lopes MMGD, Lima SCVC. A Systematic Review on Processed/Ultra-Processed Foods and Arterial Hypertension in Adults and Older People. Nutrients. 2022 Mar 13;14(6):1215. doi: 10.3390/nu14061215. PMID: 35334872; PMCID: PMC8955286.
[8] Chen X, Chu J, Hu W, Sun N, He Q, Liu S, Feng Z, Li T, Han Q, Shen Y. Associations of ultra-processed food consumption with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: UK Biobank. Eur J Public Health. 2022 Oct 3;32(5):779-785. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckac104. PMID: 36006020; PMCID: PMC9527958.
[9] Chang K, Millett C, Rauber F, Levy RB, Huybrechts I, Kliemann N, Gunter MJ, Vamos EP. Ultra-processed food consumption, cancer risk, and cancer mortality: a prospective cohort study of the UK Biobank. Lancet. 2022 Nov;400 Suppl 1:S31. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02241-3. Epub 2022 Nov 24. PMID: 36929975.
[10] 'Implications of food ultra-processing on cardiovascular risk considering plant origin foods: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort' by Rauber, F., da Costa Louzada, ML., Chang, K., et al. is published in Lancet Regional Health – Europe. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2024.100948
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