Ultra-processed foods 'make us eat more’

Ultra-processed foods are a growing health concern. Here’s what you need to know, plus the best ways to limit them.
“Ultra-processed food” is a term coined by Carlos Monteiro, Professor of Nutrition and Public Health for the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2009, Monteiro and his colleagues linked the global uptick in obesity and chronic disease to harmful practices in food production. As a result, Monteiro created a classification system that called NOVA that groups all foods by their degree of processing:
·         Unprocessed or minimally processed foods
·         Processed culinary ingredients
·         Processed foods
·         Ultra-processed food and drink products
Let’s take a closer look at the fourth category—Ultra-processed food. According to Monteiro’s 2016 report, ultra-processed foods often include long ingredient lists and additives such as artificial flavours added sugars, stabilizers, emulsifiers, preservatives, and more. They may also boast flashy packaging and bold health claims on labels. The purpose of these ultra-processed foods is convenience like ready-to-eat which require very little prep to be palatable and are low in cost.


Ultra-Processed Foods List:
Some offenders in the ultra-processed arena are familiar like
·         Soft drinks
·         Packaged bread and buns
·         Chips
·         Candy
·         Store-bought ice cream
·         Boxed cake mix
·         Instant noodles
·         Infant formula
·         Health drinks
·         Breakfast cereal
·         Energy bars
·         Flavoured yogurt
·         Chicken nuggets, so on  ·   
       
• 
  Plain yogurt is technically a "processed" food, but still healthful. The addition of flavours and sweeteners, however, transforms plain yogurt into an ultra-processed product.
  Some of these like soft drinks make sense, while others like flavoured yogurt are more surprising. Isn’t it?? The easiest way to identify these is by reading the ingredient list. If you see anything wonky or unfamiliar, chances are it is ultra-processed. For example, the common products we buy- Britannia Nutri Choice Digestives, Kelloggs Chocos, Kinder Joy, Knorr, Sauces and many such contain a slew of odd ingredients we may want to avoid.
  Hence, before buying a pack check out for these warning signs:
  §  Ingredients you cannot pronounce
  §  More than five ingredients listed on the packet
  §  Anything your grandmother would not recognise as food
  For years, if I even looked at food labels, I was reviewing the nutrition label such as total fat, calorie count, carbs and sugar content. While this is important too, the best indicator of how highly processed a food is can actually be found in the list of ingredients. If what you are buying contains more than 5 ingredients and includes a lot of unfamiliar, unpronounceable items you should reconsider before buying.
  What makes us ‘Overeat’?
  Recently Dr Kevin along with his fellows published a research article on Ultra-processed diets and their cause effects in volunteers the link is (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413119302487?via%3Dihub). It’s considered that foods are "ultra-processed" if they have ingredients predominantly found in industrial food manufacturing, such as hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, flavouring agents, and emulsifiers. Many research studies show volunteers who ate more, gained more weight on a heavily processed diet than an unprocessed one, even when the two diets had the same available calories and nutrients.
  Be it processed or unprocessed food, both contained the same number of calories, and comparable amounts of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Even the diets’ fibre, sugar, and sodium contents match. Nutrient-wise, they are about as similar as two meal plans could get; despite the superficial similarities. But Ultra-processed foods, on the other hand, take things one step further by including ingredients that provide cheap, “industrial” sources of dietary energy and nutrients—like added sugars, fats, and chemical preservatives—that enhance an item’s flavour, texture, or shelf life.
  People also ate much faster when put on the ultra-processed diet, consuming 17 more calories per minute compared to the unprocessed diet. It takes a while for our brains to register the feeling of fullness and this lag gives our mouths plenty of time to overeat—an easy thing to do with ultra-processed foods, which are often softer and easier to chew and swallow. There’s plenty to grapple with, as food production becomes increasingly industrialized, ultra-processed foods have taken over the diet sector where having energy bars is more common than our groundnut chikki’s (kadalai urundai), coconut barfi’s, sathumaavu laddoo’s, having cornflakes, chocos is more common than having kazhi and kanji. Even when put on diets at two extremes of a spectrum, volunteers experienced a bigger change in their hormone levels when shifting to the unprocessed menu, signifying that their baseline was more aligned with an ultra-processed diet.

  

  Pic source: Google images

  Breakfast cereals also count as ultra-processed foods, which often include additives and ingredients that enhance the product's flavour, texture, or shelf life.

  
  

  That’s not terribly surprising, given that these products tend to be rich in fat and sugars, which set off the brain’s pleasure system. Over time, our bodies get used to the reward, and crave it in even higher quantities- this vicious cycle of addiction makes ultra-processed foods a tough habit to break.

  But weaning ourselves off ultra-processed foods entirely isn’t a practical goal. The fact remains that ultra-processed foods require less time, money, and an effort to purchase and consume—and they’re effectively marketed as such, instant, ready-to-eat and so on. While healthful wholesome foods carry a bigger price tag than ultra-processed foods—even before taking into account the added expenses of storing, preparing, and serving them.

  What’s more, because the cost is such a big incentive, the burden of ultra-processed foods is disproportionately shouldered by people with low means. This trend threatens to exacerbate existing health disparities between socioeconomic brackets. There’s no quick fix to this problem. But the path forward is with studies like pinpointing the mystery factor in ultra-processed foods—whatever it is that’s causing us to eat more and gain weight— also researchers might be able to partner with the food industry to cooking up cheap, convenient foods that can still confer some health benefits.

  In the end, “just giving people nutrition advice won’t be enough. We need to advocate for policy initiatives and support people’s needs. This is a social justice issue. And we’re living it right now.