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Processed foods may fuel cancer by disrupting omega-3 benefits<\/p>\n
Your diet may influence your body\u2019s ability to combat colon cancer, according to a new study.<\/p>\n
unbranded – Lifestyle<\/p>\n
As U.S. health officials race to address Americans\u2019 consumption of ultra-processed foods<\/a> (UPFs), a new study further reveals their potential implications for health.<\/p>\n Diets that center<\/a> minimally-processed foods offer more significant benefits for weight loss than diets that primarily consist of ultra-processed foods, a randomized crossover trial published in Nature Medicine<\/a> concluded. But what exactly makes a processed food, ultra-processed?\u00a0<\/p>\n When it comes to processed foods, where you might start running into trouble is if you\u2019re consistently eating foods that have been processed for the sake of enhancing their palatability, rather than nutritional content, experts say.<\/p>\n What exactly are processed foods?<\/p>\n Simply put, these are foods that have been altered in some capacity, says Dr. Amar Dave<\/a>, a lifestyle medicine specialist with MedStar Health. It\u2019s as simple as heating, freezing<\/a> or dehydrating a food<\/a>. \u201cThose are all changes that would constitute something being processed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But is there reason to stay wary of all processed foods? \u201cIt really depends a lot more (on the) type and the degree of processing,\u201d says Dena Champion<\/a>, a lead dietitian at The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.<\/p>\n \u201cProcessing makes our food safer (and) more accessible,\u201d adds Champion. Take fortified milk<\/a>, for example, where nutrients like vitamin D<\/a> and calcium can be added during processing to increase the milk\u2019s nutrient profile. Really, the issue with processing begins \u201cwhen we take away desirable nutrients, or add undesirable ones that could be harmful to us,\u201d says Dave.\u00a0<\/p>\n Researchers often define the different types of foods through the lens of the NOVA classification system<\/a>, which consists of four categories: unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra-processed foods. In research, the central benefit to the NOVA framework is that it allows experts to compare the results of cross studies, says Casey Rebholz<\/a>, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.<\/p>\n