The concept of UPFs was born in the early years of this millennium when a Brazilian scientist called Carlos Monteiro noticed a paradox. People appeared to be buying less sugar, yet obesity and type 2 diabetes were going up. A team of Brazilian nutrition researchers led by Monteiro, based at the university of Sao Paulo, had been tracking the nation's diet since the 80s, asking households to record the foods they bought. One of the biggest trends to jump out of the data was that, while the amount of sugar and oil people were buying was going down, their sugar consumption was vastly increasing, because of all of the ready-to-eat sugary products that were now available, from packaged cakes to chocolate breakfast cereal, that were easy to eat in large quantities without thinking about it."
the Brasil Paradox
In fact, this is not true just in Brasil, it is true in all the countries where the consumption of processed foods has gone up.
I remember that the consumption of cane sugar had actually decreased in the USA.
Total added sugars intake is on the decline, but how much actual sugar (or sucrose) are we consuming?
Dietary data are frequently reported as total added sugars, a combination of the intakes of all caloric sweeteners: sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, etc. But, if we look at just sugar intake, the story is a little different. From 1970 to 2014, consumption of sugar (sucrose) from sugar beets and sugar cane has decreased by about 30%, a drop from 283 calories (17.7 tsp) per day to 192.2 calories (12 tsp) per day.5
While added sugars consumption increased sharply in the 90’s, intakes today have come back down and are very close to what they were in 1970. Compared to 1970, daily added sugars consumption has increased by fewer than 30 calories.5
Nutrition and metabolism
Research
Ultra-processed foods and added sugars in the US diet: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study
Author affiliations
1. Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Abstract
Objectives To investigate the contribution of ultra-processed foods to the intake of added sugars in the USA. Ultra-processed foods were defined as industrial formulations which, besides salt, sugar, oils and fats, include substances not used in culinary preparations, in particular additives used to imitate sensorial qualities of minimally processed foods and their culinary preparations.
Design Cross-sectional study.
Setting National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009–2010.
Participants We evaluated 9317 participants aged 1+ years with at least one 24 h dietary recall.
Main outcome measures Average dietary content of added sugars and proportion of individuals consuming more than 10% of total energy from added sugars.
Data analysis Gaussian and Poisson regressions estimated the association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and intake of added sugars. All models incorporated survey sample weights and adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, family income and educational attainment.
Results Ultra-processed foods comprised 57.9% of energy intake, and contributed 89.7% of the energy intake from added sugars. The content of added sugars in ultra-processed foods (21.1% of calories) was eightfold higher than in processed foods (2.4%) and fivefold higher than in unprocessed or minimally processed foods and processed culinary ingredients grouped together (3.7%). Both in unadjusted and adjusted models, each increase of 5 percentage points in proportional energy intake from ultra-processed foods increased the proportional energy intake from added sugars by 1 percentage point. Consumption of added sugars increased linearly across quintiles of ultra-processed food consumption: from 7.5% of total energy in the lowest quintile to 19.5% in the highest. A total of 82.1% of Americans in the highest quintile exceeded the recommended limit of 10% energy from added sugars, compared with 26.4% in the lowest.
Conclusions Decreasing the consumption of ultra-processed foods could be an effective way of reducing the excessive intake of added sugars in the USA.
The study analyzed the relationship between processed food consumption, total calories, and calories from added sugar using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2010.
They divided foods into four categories:
- Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: Fresh, dry, or frozen fruits or vegetables, grains, legumes, meat, fish, and milk
- Processed culinary ingredients: Table sugar, oils, fats, salt, and other substances extracted from foods or from nature and used in kitchens to make culinary preparations
- Processed foods: Foods manufactured with the addition of salt, sugar, or other substances of culinary use to unprocessed or minimally-processed foods, such as canned food, simple breads, and cheese
- Ultra-processed foods: Formulations of several ingredients that -- besides salt, sugar, oils, and fats -- include food substances not used in culinary preparations, in particular, flavors, colors, sweeteners, emulsifiers, and other additives used to imitate sensory qualities of unprocessed or minimally-processed foods and their culinary preparations or to disguise undesirable qualities of the final product
The top ultra-processed foods by calorie intake were breads, beverages, cakes, cookies and pies, salty snacks, frozen and shelf-stable dishes, pizza, and breakfast cereals.
Altogether, ultra-processed foods accounted for 58% of all calories in the U.S. diet and nearly 90% of all added sugars.
Doctors and Nutritionists had placed emphasis on Ingredients or in some cases micronutrients but had forgotten about the QUALITY while wondering about the QUANTITY..
It is no longer about Vegetarianism, Veganism or this diet or that diet but about understanding what has gone into making that food in front of you .
People desperate for good health or feeling good or losing weight, easily embrace nutritional fads, always aided and abetted by the food manufacturers.
Here is something from Australia
· Vegan ultra-processed food items contain, on average, slightly less but overall quite similar amounts of saturated fat, calories, protein & sodium compared to their regular animal-based versions. After all, to replicate the fatty and salty taste of bacon, a beefy burger or a piece of chicken, something’s got to give.
· The ingredient list of these vegan food items tends to be longer (i.e. more processed) than the animal-based version, but not much so. Most animal-based foods are subjected to similar amounts of processing to achieve the desired product.
Yes. You read that correctly. STUDY BY HALL
Among 20 inpatient adults (10 men and 10 women), the ultra-processed diet caused increased ad libitum energy intake and weight gain despite being matched to the unprocessed diet for presented calories, sugar, fat, sodium, fiber, and macronutrients.
Hall said he expected negative results from this study but now believes something about UPFs beyond their macronutrient composition causes many individuals to overeat and gain weight. Whereas in 2016, I thought the major culprit was the added sugar in UPFs, Hall's study suggested it is not just added sugar or missing fiber in the diet that is leading to excess eating and weight gain.
SOME ADVICE FROM MICHAEL POLLEN
Some of the key rules:
- Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
- Avoid food products with ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry
- Avoid things that contain high fructose corn syrup
- Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients
- Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients
- Avoid food products with the wordoid "lite" or the terms "low-fat" or "nonfat" in them (one I particularly like as it emphasizes the misleading health claims of low-fat dairy)
How to find and where to find Ultra Processed Foods (you would be surprised ! where they hid in the supermarket)
The NOVA scales. 1 to 4 as seen above 4 is Ultra processed.
I found a great app and website OPENFOOD FACTS
Run by volunteers based in France and also elsewhere where they dissect the quality of food offered for sale in various countries, so if you want to know what Muesli to buy at Delhaize in Brussels, the application would tell you .
I went to the PUBLIX supermarket today and it was incredible how many of the items scored 4 on the NOVA scale. I just concentrated on buying their store organic brand GREEENWISE and escaped from there.
Compare the nutrition quality of food products with the Nutri-Score!
What is Nutri-Score?
The Nutri-Score is a logo that shows the nutritional quality of food products with A to E grades. With the NutriScore, products can be easily and quickly compared.
Many of the products that I checked at the supermarket on my iPhone app was E4 which is the worst, many were 3 and some 2.. I did not check fresh produce which may have scored 1
Nutriscore on many of the packets were 4 and the ice-cream that I like scored the hefty but bad. 4..
So, it would be nice to be able to avoid E 4 designations of the food you buy..
I am indebted to many authors for this blog..
Anthony Pearson who writes a blog
Carlos Augusto Monteiro from USP in Brasil
And the wonderful French volunteers for NutriScore and OpenFood Secrets
