Ultra-processed foods, such as soft drinks, ice cream, packaged breads, hot dogs and more<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWhat\u2019s the difference between \u2018processed\u2019 and \u2018ultra-processed\u2019?<\/p>\n
Foods like sodas and packaged desserts fall clearly into the ultra-processed category. Other foods, though, walk the line between processed and ultra-processed.<\/p>\n
Processed foods often have added sugar, salt or oil, and they may also be canned or bottled. That includes canned beans, which have been processed significantly to preserve their shelf life, but which are also high in nutrients such as fiber.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the foods that we typically eat that are healthy are still processed,\u201d said Dolores Woods, a dietitian nutritionist at UTHealth Houston.<\/p>\n
Ultra-processed foods have been taken a step further than that. They usually have added sugar, salt and oil to make them taste good, plus preservatives and stabilizers to make them last longer. But they\u2019re also typically industrially made to amp up the palatability and shelf life even more. They may have chemically modified ingredients created through industrial processes such as extrusion.<\/p>\n
Woods said she sees lab-made ingredients \u2014 such as hydrolyzed protein \u2014 as the line between processed and ultra-processed. Such ingredients are only ever lab-created, and foods that contain them are typically in the ultra-processed category.<\/p>\n
Are ultra-processed foods always unhealthy?<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s a general correlation between increased processing and decreased nutritional value, Siler said it\u2019s more complicated than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOftentimes \u2026 the more processed it is, the less nutritious it is,\u201d Siler said. \u201cBut that\u2019s where the details are really important, context and nuance is important, because that is not always necessarily so.\u201d<\/p>\n
One problem, Woods said, is that a lot of processed foods get lumped into the ultra-processed category. And because some processed foods do still have high nutritional value, the blurring of the line makes it confusing for people who want to cut down on ultra-processed foods. <\/p>\n
For instance, high-fiber canned beans are likely a good addition to the dinner plate, even though they are processed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome processed foods are healthy and they are going to be a part of our diet,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n
For foods that are truly in the ultra-processed category, Woods said they are generally less healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the ultra-processed, though, I do think that inherently they are unhealthier foods, just because of the food substances used to prepare them,\u201d Woods said. \u201cSince they are these industrial formulations, they\u2019re not going to be healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The intensive manufacturing generally means that ultra-processed foods also have been stripped of their original ingredients\u2019 nutritional value. For instance, many ultra-processed foods are extremely low in dietary fiber.<\/p>\n
Between stripped nutrients and added sugar, salt and oils, ultra-processed foods generally have a low nutritional value, especially when compared to less-processed options.<\/p>\n
Should I eat ultra-processed foods?<\/p>\n
For people looking to cut down on ultra-processed foods, Woods said to steer clear of unrecognizable or unpronounceable ingredients. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust learning how to read the labels goes a long way for a lot of people,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n
Some foods may also have easy swap-outs for less processed options, said Christiane Meireles, a dietitian and professor at UT Health San Antonio.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you buy plain yogurt, it\u2019s still processed, but it\u2019s not as processed as the one \u2026 that has the fruit added to it,\u201d Meireles said. \u201cSo what I can do, I can get my plain yogurt and I can add my fresh fruit.\u201d <\/p>\n
But for most people, it\u2019s not realistic \u2014 or even healthy \u2014 to cut out processed or ultra-processed foods as a whole category.<\/p>\n
Siler said the goal should be to add more nutrients into your diet, not to take away potential sources of those nutrients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith only one out of every 10 of us getting the amount of vegetables, for example, that we need on a regular basis, the most important thing is to get that vegetable,\u201d Siler said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGet that food that you need, whether that\u2019s fresh, frozen, canned, freeze-dried \u2014 the most important thing is consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n
All three experts recommended people take a nuanced, case-by-case approach to processed and ultra-processed foods, assessing each for its nutritional value instead of cutting it out simply based on its processing category.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t throw the baby out with the bathwater,\u201d Siler said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is spearheading a federal push to rein in ultra-processed foods. But…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":106314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[23489,2105,210,1141,10236,1182,881,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-106313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-evergreen-monthly","9":"tag-food-and-drink","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthy-living","13":"tag-nutrition","14":"tag-public-health","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114945306539672565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}