
America’s packaged food supply is ultra-processed - xbeta
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2019/07/us-packaged-food-supply-is-ultra-processed/
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TheAlchemist
It's really simple - good food is food prepared by yourself from raw
ingredients (some exceptions for pasta, bread etc - use whole grain). If you
do that, you will be good - it's really hard to eat bad with food you prepare
yourself. On the contrary, it's extremely hard to eat well with eating
processed food.

I've traveled recently to US and the amount of shit food available was
amazing. I've seen several small grocery shops without a single fresh veggie
available. What a contrast with France (where I live) !

~~~
spodek
I used to eat mainly processed to ultra-processed.

My neighbor came over for some of my famous no-packaging vegetable stew
yesterday. She said she was overwhelmed with how delicious it tasted. I made
two stews. Here are the ingredients:

Stew 1: Black beans, potatoes, cabbage, nutritional yeast, epizote, zucchini,
water.

Stew 2: Split peas, chard, zucchini, nutritional yeast, water.

Both were topped with onion, nuts, cucumber, and nuts. Salt to taste.

The beans, peas, nuts, and salt were from bulk from my local coop (filling
containers I brought). All other ingredients from my CSA or the local farmers
market.

Maybe a quarter cup of scraps to compost. Zero to a landfill.

Dessert was nectarines that I couldn't help but say, "I can't believe anyone
eats ice cream" they tasted so good. Appetizers were tomatoes from my CSA and
greens from my windowsill garden.

Total cost: maybe $10 worth of food, enough to eat for 7 to 10 meals.

Now I eat like this all the time. Anyone in or around Manhattan interested in
sampling, I'm easy to find. Email me and come over for some famous no-
packaging vegetable stew. Especially mid to late summer when I have trouble
keeping up with all the CSA vegetables.

~~~
senorjazz
If you are stew / soup fan and just getting into it. I cannot recommend a
pressure cooker enough. Reduces cooking time by 60-80%.

Just throw in a load of veg and you can have pretty much a weeks worth of food
to freeze ready in 10minutes incredibly cheaply.

If you also eat a lot of dried beans / lentils / chickpeas it is a godsend for
how quickly it is ready and thoroughly cooked all the way through and dried
beans at probably (here at least) 20% of the cost of tinned beans (even less
if you buy in bulk).

~~~
spodek
Yes, my pressure cooker changed everything! I bought it used from Craigslist,
not knowing what to expect.

My neighbor came over because she got a pressure cooker, heard of my
reputation cooking with mine, and asked for a lesson. Here are reviews:
[http://joshuaspodek.com/food-world-reviews](http://joshuaspodek.com/food-
world-reviews).

While my public speaking is mostly on business leadership and
entrepreneurship, I increasingly speak on sustainability and sometimes include
making my famous no-packaging vegetable stews.

On Earth Day this year I cooked for about 2 dozen at Lululemon's flagship
store on 5th Avenue and spoke on sustainability. Last year I cooked for 50 or
60 at Brooklyn North Farms for Faherty clothing, another time at Assemblage
coworking space, and I forget where else.

Here's a video of me cooking: [http://joshuaspodek.com/20-minute-vegetable-
stew](http://joshuaspodek.com/20-minute-vegetable-stew) from about 3 years
ago.

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chmod775
What is "ultra processed" food? According to [1] it is stuff like:

    
    
        Soft drinks
        Packaged bread and buns
        Chips
        Candy
        Store-bought ice cream
        Boxed cake mix
        Instant noodles
        Infant formula
        Breakfast cereal
        Energy bars
        Flavored yogurt
        Chicken nuggets
        Fast food burgers
        Hot dogs
    

Some of these make sense... other don't. But clearly the actual degree of
processing required to obtain a given food item isn't the main factor to label
it "ultra processed".

You're gonna tell me my muesli energy bar is "ultra-processed"? It's literally
just a bunch of grain sticking together.

Besides, those qualifiers are really weird: linking the category of an item to
the place it was purchased instead of its actual ingredients ( _Fast food_
burgers, _store-bought_ ice cream, _packaged_ bread and buns)?

This smells like bullshit, clickbait, and health-craze pseudoscience.

[1]: [https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-
smart/nutrition-101/what...](https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-
smart/nutrition-101/what-is-ultra-processed-food)

~~~
MisterTea
I personally can't stand the term "processed" when applied to food. Everything
from harvesting/slaughtering/milling to prep and cooking is a process. I
prefer the term "mass manufactured food", because that is exactly what it is,
food mass produced in a factory.

~~~
larssorenson
I would posit that even mass manufactured is slightly off point. For instance,
if you can produce bread dough of the same consistency and quality with 4
ingredients (flour, water, salt, yeast) how does scaling it, in a factory or
by hand, make it less healthy?

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open-source-ux
Related: statistics on consumption of 'ultra-processed' foods across 19
European Countries (from Feb 2018)

[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/02/ultra-
proces...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/02/ultra-processed-
products-now-half-of-all-uk-family-food-purchases)

The countries consuming the most ultra-processed foods are UK, Germany,
Ireland and Belgium.

~~~
C1sc0cat
What the flipping heck a digestive biscuit is "ultra processed" its not like
chicken nuggets made of mechanically recovered meat or CMOT Dibbler brand beef
burgers is it.

I think the previous commenter who thought this was hyperbolic click bait -
which is actually counter productive is right.

~~~
senorjazz
As long as hobnobs get a clean bill of health, it's all good

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hairytrog
Would be interesting to see the fractions by mass rather than number of
products. The latter could just be that we have many many varieties of chips
and soda and only a few varieties of flour.

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lota-putty
Consequence of food choices purely based on taste, looks & colours?

Edit: Forcing poor towards unhealthy food choices.

~~~
tyfon
Also price.

I don't think it's as bad here as in the US, however I see more and more of
this type of foods in the store and it's usually quite cheap compared to food
made from fresh produce at home. And this should really be an alarm bell as
there is far less processing needed for fresh foods and it should be cheaper.

Personally I stay away from them and make almost all of my food from scratch.
It seems quite scary to radically change the diet of the human in this way in
so short of a time.

~~~
humanrebar
> ...there is far less processing needed for fresh foods and it should be
> cheaper.

Fresh food has significantly higher storage and shipping costs. It tends to go
bad.

You can reasonably expect to sell a pallet of mustard before any of it
expires. How much of a pallet of bananas will end up unsellable?

~~~
kaybe
Frozen vegetables and fruit can work pretty well too. Some will have a
different texture after thawing (eg berries) and cannot be used for everything
but in cooking it's almost the same as fresh. How is the frozen food situation
in the US?

~~~
Junk_Collector
Preserved fruits and vegetables are extremely cheap and available in the US.
Food in general of any type is actually very cheap in the US unless you live
in NYC or downtown SF. These prices are for average chain grocers, HEB,
Krogers, Wegmans, etc. Not bulk shops like Sam's or Costco. Some grocers also
tend to focus on lower costs and will be cheaper than this such as Fiesta.

Frozen typically runs between $1 and $2 a lb depending on what you want. Some
cheaper mixes can be had around $0.50/lb.

Canned typically comes in between $0.25 and $1.00 a can depending on brand.
The chain grocer near me also routinely has sales on canned vegetables for
$0.15/can if you buy 20 or more. A can is typically about 15 ounces. It can
make up the bulk of a meal for 1 person, or serve as a side for about 3.

Dried bulk products such as rice or pinto beans are also reasonably cheap
though more expensive now than they used to be. Beans run about $0.25 to
$0.50/lb depending on how much you buy at once and rice is about half of that.

Fresh produce varies a lot by time of year and location but can typically be
had for under $1/lb if you aren't choosey. Double to triple for anything
labeled organic.

Meats start around $1 to $2/lb for chicken thighs and pork shoulder and goes
up to about $20/lb for premium beef cuts.

I routinely make stuffed bellpeppers (bell pepper, rice, hamburger, tomato,
and spices) for lunch and then end cost comes out to around $1.50/lb.

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FerretFred
As a UK home baker I was surprised to see that the majority of US bread
recipes i found seem to need sugar as a substantial ingredient (see
[https://www.thebrewerandthebaker.com/archives/17796](https://www.thebrewerandthebaker.com/archives/17796))
. Bearing in mind that bread basically consists of flour, water and usually
yeast, the need for sugar is puzzling, especially as it doesn't really add to
the flavour.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
It depends on the recipe. Most breads I make are flour, water, salt and yeast.
But if I make something like a honey-wheat bread, I'll use, well, honey.

Also, there are still a lot of people in the US who like to use soft white
bread for sandwiches and, yeah, the traditional recipes for that style contain
some sugar. A lot of us try and avoid that style of bread because it is really
not much better for you than cake.

~~~
FerretFred
The honey-wheat bread sounds interesting and although honey's a sugar it's
very different to the refined stuff. I did make a Hokkaido Milk Loaf out of
curiosity though and it was delicious. Mind you, with 60 g (scant 1/3 cup)
sugar it should be!

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swarnie_
What did you guys managed to do to bread?

Every time i go to America' toast / sandwiches are inedible because it tastes
closer to what i call cake.

~~~
zapita
Most industrial bread sold in the US has high fructose corn syrup added.

~~~
swarnie_
Flour, yeast, water, and salt - maybe a stabilizer for commercial sales.

Why corn syrup?

~~~
larssorenson
Sweeteners are addictive, leads to more sales.

