by Sofia Moreau

Is your pantry full of health-promise foods like oat milk, hummus and plant-based burgers? If so, you might want to inspect your kitchen quickly. These staples of many health-conscious diets are often ultra-processed foods, associated with weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease. Despite avoiding typical junk foods, our diets may be stealthily infiltrated by these agents of ill health, disguised as beneficial products. Let’s decode the myth of ultra-processed foods and uncover ways to avoid them.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) account for more than 50% of the energy intake in the UK due to their convenience and taste. However, these foods fluctuate our blood sugar levels, paving the way for conditions like type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Instead of focusing on a calorie-counting approach, the real game-changer may lie in inspecting the ingredients of the products we consume.

Unmasking Ultra Processed Foods

Our western diets invariably include processed foods. From canned fish to frozen peas, and from milled wheat to yogurt, processing does enhance food’s digestibility and nutritional value. But troubles arise when food engineering imparts novel flavors and textures, enticing our palate but paying a heavy price in terms of health. Think chocolate cookies, supermarket bread, tangy tortilla chips, these are all UPFs. They usually contain high salt, sugar, fat, and additives, which negatively affect health.

The NOVA classification system identifies common UPFs as reconstituted meats, sugary and salty snacks, frozen meals, amongst others. But few are aware that health foods like almond milk, canned soup, post-gym smoothies, and protein drinks also fall under this category.

Pank-based foods are not a free pass either, they often masquerade as healthy options due to their plant-derived origin. However, they’re often so far processed that they bear no resemblance to the original plant. An apt example would be plant-based milk, marketed as a healthy substitute for cow’s milk, but in reality, a UPF.

The Metabolic Puzzle of Processed Foods

Once inside your body, the story of UPFs is quite different from the wholefoods they originate from. Not only are they usually higher in sugar, fat, and calories, but they release these nutrients faster into your bloodstream due to their altered structure during the processing tenure. This rapid release disrupts our metabolism, causing bursts of blood sugar followed by dips, which can promote inflammation and hunger pangs.

Health Risks: The Dark Side of UPFs

A diet high in UPFs often takes the toll of long-term health side-effects. According to studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the British Medical Journal, those who had a high consumption of UPFs, be it plant-based or meat-based, were shown a 14% higher mortality risk over a span of a decade. Other studies correlated an increased risk of cancer and heart disease with UPF consumption.

Weight Gain: Another Spin-off of UPFs?

Struggling with shedding those stubborn pounds? Those calorie-controlled meals and snacks you opt for could be the surprising culprits. They are designed to stimulate appetite and your body absorbs energy easier from these foods instead of wholefoods. Also, US National Institutes Health found out that those consuming ultra-processed food consumed 500 calories more than those adhering to minimally processed food, over time leading to weight gain.

The Wholefood Advantage

Reducing ultra-processed food consumption and increasing the intake of whole foods rich in nutrients, fiber, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals can significantly improve health parameters like gut health, energy, mental clarity, sleep quality and overall well-being. Consuming a variety of foods in their natural form, including fruits, vegetables, and protein sources can prevent exposure to the potential risks associated with UPFs.

Steering Clear of UPFs

Making conscious food choices like grabbing fresh fruit and nuts instead of snack bars for snacks, choosing plain yogurt over sweetened variants, opting for homemade sourdough over supermarket breads, replacing fizzy drinks with flavored water, can go a long way in reducing UPF intake. Lightness in your body and clarity in your mind might just be a few mindful choices away. Make those changes today.

Processed foods, wholefoods, sugar, fat, calories, health risks, weight gain, nutrient-rich foods, gut health, energy, mental clarity, sleep quality, wellbeing, mindful food choices