MicroWaveJun 27, 2024

Ultra-processed foods need tobacco-style warnings, says scientist

https://lemmy.world/post/16978728

Ultra-processed foods need tobacco-style warnings, says scientist - Lemmy.World

UPFs should also be heavily taxed due to impact on health and mortality, says scientist who coined term Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets “all over the world” despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term. Prof Carlos Monteiro of the University of São Paulo will highlight the increasing danger UPFs present to children and adults at the International Congress on Obesity this week. “UPFs are increasing their share in and domination of global diets, despite the risk they represent to health in terms of increasing the risk of multiple chronic diseases,” Monteiro told the Guardian ahead of the conference in São Paulo.

Show threadli10Jun 27, 2024

Will that achieve anything?

People know the effects, people see the effects, people don’t care.

Just seems like a silly outdated idea. Isn’t it well established that the best way to stop people from buying stuff like this is plain white packaging and advertising restrictions?

Show threadKiernianJun 27, 2024

Do they?

I don’t even know what an “ultra processed food” •IS•.

How is it different than the “processed cheese product” that passes for most individually wrapped “American cheese” cheese slices? Or is that ultra processed?

Are Doritos ultra processed or just the regular kind of processed?

Which kind of ground beef qualifies for “ultra”? Only the pink slime or anything that’s been chemically treated?

I’m not being a pedantic contrary asshat, I legitimately do not know what qualifies something to be in this category and why it’s worse than normal processing.

Bpa from plastic tubing used in the processing of Annie’s organic leeched into the food. Is that considered contamination or a side effect of processing?

Show threadStereoTrespasser
My dude, if you don’t know that Doritos are ultra processed food, this is living proof that the government needs to step in and provide warnings to people…
Jun 28, 2024 at 1:07amWeb
Show threadKiernianJun 28, 2024

They’re processed, yes. The corn is milled, pressed into triangles, coated with preservative-heavy flavor powder and cooked in one order or another, possibly repeatedly.

What makes it ULTRA processed?

Frickin… most raw potatoes are “processed” because they’re typically not covered in topsoil when they get put in 5lb plastic bags.

A grass-fed organic, antibiotic free, roaming free-range massaged poterhouse steak is “processed” because it’s not still attached to the cow.

I’m trying to understand the definition, here. Almost everything is processed to some degree or another.

Is white flour ultra processed because they bleach and de-hull the wheat berries? Or only when it’s made into cake flour? Or do both of those count as “processed” and only “cake MIX” counts as “ultra processed”?

Am I making sense?