Is what you eat harming you?
June 2021
The saying goes you are what you eat, so is what you eat doing you a power of good or no good? Is what food you buy harming your health and causing you to put on weight? This is a question for vegans and carnivores alike.
Most people I know talk about eating healthy and all have periods of doing so. As far as can tell eating healthy means staying away from too many cakes and biscuits and maybe red meat. So how does this fit with new research about what healthy eating is? This research doesn’t focus so much on individual ingredients like sugar, that all agree are bad for you in excess, but on how ingredients are put together to form a product. In other words how foods are processed.
Research is now suggesting that it is Ultra-Processed Food (UPF’s) - many crisp varieties, like bought cakes, like instant soups and noodles - that are factors in obesity and higher rates of disease like type 2 diabetes.
The work on whether or not UPF’s are the villain in this health story began in Brazil and hit the world when Dr Monteiro, a Brazilian Professor of Nutrition, published a guide to processed and ultra processed foods - the Nova system - in 2011. This was a result of his research into the huge rise in obesity rates in Brazil. The government there followed up on his work and asked Brazilians to avoid UPF’s altogether and go back to cooking basic ingredients for the sake of their weight and health.
The Nova won’t be the last word on this subject but it’s worth perusing to see just what it is that is thought to be good and what is harmful. Dr Monteiro laid out 4 basic food groups.
Group 1 - the least processed foods like spinach or strawberries, oats or lentils. All good to eat.
Group 2 - this group features so called processed culinary ingredients like olive oil, syrup from maple trees, salt, mined or from seawater. Also good to eat but as part of a meal.
Group 3 - processed foods which mostly have 2/3 ingredients. The list includes fruits in sugar syrup; salted or sugared nuts; tomato pastes or concentrated with added salt and maybe sugar. These products come directly from foods we recognise.
Group 4 - this group is unlike any of the others, the so called Ultra-Processed Foods. These foods are industrial formulations and have little connection with traditional food ingredients. Ultra-Processed Foods include packaged snacks; packet biscuits; cola and ‘energy’ drinks; sweetened and flavoured yoghurts; pre prepared pasta and pizza dishes; packaged breads, hamburger and hot dog buns and breakfast cereals and bars. It is these, it is now argued, that we need to identify and eat in moderation.
A quote from an article published for the UN Decade of Nutrition, which we are now in, says ‘These are not modified foods but formulations mostly of cheap industrial sources of dietary energy and nutrients plus additives’. It goes on ‘Altogether they are energy dense, high in unhealthy types of fat, free sugars and salt and poor sources of protein, dietary fibre and nutrients’.
Ultra-Processed Foods are designed to be good to eat, attractive and even addictive. But a big downside is now being flagged, pointing a finger at these UPF’s, these everywhere, easy, quick, tasty foods .
It is estimated that 50% of the foods consumed in the UK and the US are UPF’s. Most of us have memories of eating them as children so following Brazil’s guidelines would mean cutting out half or more of what is for sale as food including basics like supermarket bread. Doesn’t sound too realistic does it? A number of countries are though taking action, France for instance wants to reduce the consumption of Nova 4 products by 20% in the next few years.
There is a lot of research now underway into UPF’s so keep an eye open for more info. For now the course of action must be to keep an eye on what you are eating so you can keep the percentage of ultra-processed dishes in your diet to a minimum. It really looks like too much of them can seriously effect both your weight and your health.
For further information, check out the Nova Classification System online; an article ‘How ultra processed foods took over your shopping basket, the Guardian, Feb 13 2020; and BBC TV’s ‘What Are We Feeding our Kids?’ transmitted May 2021 and available into the autumn of 2021.