What Are Ultra Processed Foods?

Ultra processed foods are classified as been heavily processed from their original state. They usually contain sugar or vegetable oil. Minimally processed food is different because it only has a few steps of processing, such as olive oil. Every single molecule of food you eat can impact your genetic expression. A hunter gatherer should be able to recognize the food, such as meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and grains. Even if it’s a real food, it doesn’t mean it’s right for you, you have to listen to your body.

Health Washing

Health washing is the term used to identify marketers that use certain terms on foods to make them appear healthy. Saying it’s sugar free, when there’s artificial sweeteners in there as an example. It’s designed to trick the customer into thinking a product is healthy when it’s really not. A consumer may use a product for a long time, thinking that it’s making them healthier.

How Food Scientists Mimic Flavor

In the 1950s, a device called the gas chromatograph was created. This device can detect substances in minute amounts. Flavor exists in very tiny quantities in food, even parts per trillion. It volatilizes the chemicals in food, puts them in a coil. In the coil, they arrange in to their constituent parts, then you can analyze them using mass spectrometry. This allows us to know and create flavor.

Marketing

Billions of dollars are spent on processed food marketing. Also, big food funds many organizations such as the FDA and other organizations to recommend their products. Kids are especially targeted. There is a term called a heavy user, which means that someone uses a ton of their products. They would have less customers if their heavy users than more customers who are average users. They also fund research known as epidemiology, which is observational type research, and can not prove causation. This is how the soda industries research shows how soda doesn’t cause obesity, but all third party research does.

Three Processed Foods To Avoid

1. Vegetable oil

Vegetable oil is really a marketing term, none of them are actually oils from a vegetable. The oils are corn, canola, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, and sunflower. Also, grape seed and oat bran oil are sometimes used. These are actually seed oils. Eating the foods themselves is fine, but when we make a highly industrialized seed oil from them, it’s another story. These oils contain a substantial amount of polyunsaturated fat, which makes it very susceptible to oxidation.

2. Sugar

Sugar has been around for a long time. The problem is from the way it’s processed and the amount we consume today. Today, the average American consumes about 150 pounds of added sugar each year. This is not including sugar that’s naturally occurring in food. Sugar is the number one thing that raises insulin. All carbs get broken down into sugar. Insulin is the bodies number one fat storing hormone. It’s important to keep this in check to avoid chronic disease. Also, it can lead to something called advanced glycation end products, (AGEs) which is when sugar binds to our proteins and damages them.

3. Fake meat

Fake meat is a meat “alternative” that is made of plants, but designed to taste like meat.

Different Types Of Fake Meat-

Impossible burger-

Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Sunflower Oil, Coconut Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% Or Less Of: Methylcellulose, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Yeast Extract, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Mixed Tocopherols (Antioxidant), L-tryptophan, Soy Protein Isolate

Beyond burger-

Water, Pea Protein, Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Refined Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Natural Flavors, Dried Yeast, Cocoa Butter, Methylcellulose, Contains 1% or Less: Potato Starch, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Beet Juice Color, Apple Extract, Pomegranate Concentrate, Sunflower Lecithin, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Vitamins and Minerals (zinc sulfate, niacinamide [vitamin B3], pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin B6], cyanocobalamin [vitamin B12], calcium pantothenate)

They also add a lot of coloring and additives to the ingredients that are on those lists to make it meat like.