Tag Archives: ultraprocessed

Fake Fruit Names for Your Breakfast Cereal

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A while back I wrote a post about the high profit-margin-to-cost of the breakfast cereal business. Today I have more to say on breakfast cereal, not about the manufacturing process or profit margins, but about the pervasive use of fruit-related words in the naming of these products.

If I had just ten seconds to share advice on improving your nutrition, I suspect you already know exactly what I would say: Eat more fruits and vegetables. And I don’t think that would surprise anyone. We all know that fruits and vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, and we also know that everyone should be eating more of them, especially since most of us don’t eat enough produce to begin with.  Continue reading →

Strategies for Improving Your Blood Sugars

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This week I’d like to talk about the concept of diet-controlled diabetes. Sometimes, when a patient’s most recent bloodwork demonstrates a mild elevation in their blood sugars, their doctor offers them an opportunity to try to improve their sugars without medication. If the patient is able to bring their blood sugars into the normal range through changes in the way they eat, perhaps along with increasing their activity levels to some extent, the doctor diagnoses this patient with what they term “diet-controlled diabetes.”  Continue reading →

An Oatmeal Hierarchy (with recipe)

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Like many other messages of its kind, Americans and other consumers of the standard Western diet have internalized the idea that oatmeal is “good for you.” Not all oatmeals are alike, however, and it is no surprise at all that the ultra processed items industry has identified a number of objectionable ways to influence the manufacture of oat-containing edibles. Today’s post provides more information on various kinds of oatmeal and related items available to consumers, beginning with instant oatmeal, the most highly processed product, and ending with steel-cut oats, the least processed form of oatmeal.  Continue reading →

Is it Really Food?

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While talking with patients about how to improve the nutritional value of their meals, we used to talk about real food that had not been processed, refined, stripped, polished, fortified, enriched or otherwise modified. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains, fish, eggs, dairy products, and meats. And that’s about it.

Here are some guidelines: The first is not to eat anything you have to be told is food. If you have to be told it’s food, it isn’t. Like “processed American cheese food.” Talk about truth in advertising. Some products at the supermarket have names that have nothing whatsoever to do with food. Like Miracle Whip®. Or Cool Whip®. These are not foods either, and that’s why I’m not buying. Continue reading →

Some Exciting New Developments

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A lot has been happening lately in the field of research into the the health effects of ultra-processed items, and that’s what I want to talk about today. Last month, the results of a huge study, involving almost 10,000,000 (ten million!) individuals, were published in the BMJ [British Medical Journal], “one of the world’s most influential and respected general medical journals,” and they were…shall we say…most informative.  Continue reading →

More Disturbing News About Ultraprocessed Products

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Almost three-quarters of packaged consumables sold in the United States are ultraprocessed. The vast majority of ultraprocessed packaged products for sale in the supermarket are placed in the center aisles. They comprise most of the menus at chain restaurants including, but not limited to, drive-through and “fast-food” establishments. At this point, they may safely be said to have edged out consumption of nourishing food in the United States.  Continue reading →

Disturbing News About Ultraprocessed Products

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My friend Nancy recently asked about a jar of “light mayo” whose first and third ingredients were water and “modified food starch,” respectively. She bought it because, in contrast to the 100 kcal found in conventional mayonnaise, it listed calories per serving at 35 kcal. I would say that it is an expensive way to buy water and flour. Currently, approximately two-thirds of the calories in the standard American diet derive from ultraprocessed items. I would like to discuss the many recent articles connecting illness and ultraprocessed products. Note that I don’t call them “food.”  Continue reading →

A Corn Continuum: From Real Food to Manufactured Calories

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Today I am talking about the difference between real food and manufactured calories. 

When you make a choice about what to eat, the question is this: Is this real food that nourishes, or is it manufactured calories, an invention of the 20th century? Some things in life are black and white, like a coin toss at the start of a football game. But it’s not always so simple. Between black and white may be found a spectrum of grays. That’s what I want to talk about today. Continue reading →

Real Food for Real People

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In discussing the nutritional value of the things we eat, I often talk about real food, by which I mean food that has not been ultraprocessed, refined, stripped, polished, fortified, degerminated, enriched, or otherwise modified. Real food means fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans and lentils), nuts, seeds, whole grains, fish, eggs, dairy products, and meats, like poultry, beef, or game. And that’s about it. Continue reading →