If UPF is disrupting the normal signalling between our guts and brains, then the impact of UPF foods on the population and particularly the developing brains of our children is a major cause for concern. Studies have shown that eating a poor diet affects mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, and the role of gut and the microbiota that live in our digestive systems are involved in the gut brain axis. Studies have shown that people who eat UPF over- consume calories, possibly because the consumption affects appetite regulation. The impact that UPF has on our brains is something science is trying to get to grips with. Judging by the amount of UPF stocked on aisles and aisles of our supermarket shelves, I’d hazard that Ireland would have comparable rates. It would be interesting to see how Irish diet data compares. ![]() ![]() as much as 60% of the average diet is made up of UPF.Īccording to the First Steps Nutrition Trust in the UK, by aged two to five, UPFs account for nearly two thirds (61%) of the total mean energy intake of UK children - a higher proportion than their peers in the United States and Australia. breakfast cereals, and supermarket bread that are problematic. It is the ready prepared meals, frozen pizza, sausages, biscuits, instant soup/noodles, sweet/savoury packaged snacks. It is not just the ‘treats’ like fizzy drinks, crisps and ice cream that we know we shouldn’t eat every day. UPF is problematic because it is everywhere. Tulleken says “if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t usually find in a standard home kitchen, it’s UPF”. There is a short rule of thumb to identify if what you are about to eat is ultra processed. You can eat an addictive salt and vinegar potato-based crisp and want a second packet as soon as you finish the first, but it is not real food in the way a homemade roast potato is. The result is an edible substance but not a food. corn or soya, and put back together again with the help of artificial additives, flavourings, emulsifiers, colourings, etc. Ultra processed food has been deconstructed from its original ingredients, e.g. The overall purpose of ultra-processing is to create highly profitable, hyper-palatable ready-to-consume products with long shelf-life. UPF uses ingredients like flavours, colours, sweeteners, emulsifiers and other additives to create desirable food sensory experiences. ![]() Ultra-processed foods (UPF) fit into category 4 and are ready-to-eat industrial formulations that are made with multiple industrial ingredients extracted from foods or synthesised in laboratories, containing little whole foods. ![]() Loosely, category 1 foods are unprocessed or minimally processed like fruits, vegetables, meat, milk, etc.Ĭategory 2 are “processed culinary ingredients” like butter, oils, sugar, flour.Ĭategory 3 examples include traditional breads, cheeses, canned fruits and vegetables. The term ‘ultra processed food’ comes from the Nova classification of food processing. His book is an eye opening look at the foods or non-foods we eat every day, how they are undermining human health and planetary health, how they are designed to be over-consumed, and how difficult it is to eat minimally processed, healthy foods without spending lots of money and time sourcing and cooking them. Tulleken might be familiar to you as one half of the twin doctor duo that present BBC’s kids show Operation Ouch, but in the real, non-TV world, he is an infectious diseases doctor who researches how food companies affect human health. I’ve just finished reading Ultra Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food…And Why Can’t We Stop, by Dr Chris Van Tulleken and it is a book that makes you stop and really think about what we put in our mouths. It’s not simply an excess of individual ingredients like fat, salt and sugar or a deficit of fibre or other micronutrients that are the problem in driving obesity and other diet-related health problems, it is the consumption of industrially mass produced ingredients into foods that are ‘ultra-processed’ (also often high in fat, sugar and salt) that are driving the obesity epidemic and raising the risks of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, mental health issues, and other chronic health conditions. Researchers are learning that what we eat every day impacts this highly evolved system.
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