“Such ultra-processed foods are designed to trick us into overconsumption,” says Jaap Seidell, professor of Nutrition and Health at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. “They have been industrially processed into products that you continue to eat. Nice and creamy or crunchy, packed with sugars, fats and acids. Many calories per bite and hardly any nutritional value.”
Almost everyone has their refrigerator and kitchen cupboards stocked with such products, he says. “White bread is very bad. It is flour with additives, it no longer contains fiber. Cookies and chocolate, of course. But drinking yoghurt without fat is also notorious: the fat has been removed, but it contains a lot of additives to make it still tasty. such as sweeteners, flavourings, emulsifiers, stabilizers and more.”
Ketchup: nothing to do with tomatoes
Two more well-known examples: chips and ketchup. “Chips should be a deep-fried slice of potato,” says Seidell. “But if you look at the ingredients, there are about 22 of them. The potato is not a potato, but powder. It has nothing to do with potatoes anymore. Just as ketchup has nothing to do with tomatoes, because of all the acid , salt and sugar and other things that are in it. Actually, that applies to everything that contains 20 ingredients.”
Examples
These are a few examples of ultra-processed foods:
- Granola
- Salami
- Grilled sausage
- Lots of ready-made meals such as lasagna
- Chips
- Soft drink
- Chocolate bars
- Ketchup
- Broodsalades
- Drinkyoghurt
- Different types of bread
An international team of scientists made a new analysis from previous scientific studies on ultra-processed foods. Their conclusion: there are 32 diseases that occur much more often in people who eat and drink a lot of such products. They are 50 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, have a 22 percent higher risk of depression and are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
The analysis, published in the scientific BMJ magazine, brings together the results of studies among around 10 million people. The scientists who made the new analysis work at Johns Hopkins University in America, Sorbonne University in Paris, and the University of Sydney in Australia.
Seidell confirms the adverse health effects of ultra-processed foods. “It leads to all known chronic lifestyle diseases.” About the increased risk of depression, he says: “We know that poor nutrition leads to small inflammations in the body. In the vessels and organs, but also in the brain. And then you are more susceptible to depression.”
‘Role of additives unclear’
Ellen Kampman, professor of Nutrition and Disease at Wageningen University, looks at the discussion with a slightly different view. There is no doubt that excessive consumption of fattening foods such as too much fat and added sugars can lead to chronic diseases. “But we don’t know whether the processing of food, especially the addition of emulsifiers and so on, leads to disease.”
Kampman emphasizes that the scientists in this analysis also conclude that the underlying studies do not yet provide incontrovertible evidence. “Much more research is needed before we can draw definitive conclusions.”
No thorough scientific research has yet been conducted into the role of such additives, says Kampman. “An unhealthy diet leads to chronic diseases, that’s for sure. Food with a lot of calories, fat, sugars and salt. Fast foods that are filling but contain few good nutrients. That is above all a calorie problem. Whether it is also a processing problem, that must first be proven.”
According to Jaap Seidell, the food supply is the biggest problem: “80 percent of all products in the supermarket are processed. You have 20 meters of bags of chips, cookies, candy, desserts, etc. Those products are cheap and often on offer. Plus: Many of these things are easy to prepare and tasty. Nowadays, our daily diet consists of 50 to 70 percent processed food. As a result, we have less and less time for healthy food.”
The apple or the apple flap
Ellen Kampman also explicitly mentions the availability of unhealthy products as a problem. “Half of the population in the Netherlands is overweight. This is due to our diet, in combination with too little exercise. Stress and poor sleep also often play a role. We often opt for convenience, for many calories that we consume quickly. We are exposed to it everywhere and always. And then you give in to it. Do you grab the apple or the apple turnover when you are hungry?”
According to Kampman, political intervention is necessary to turn the tide. “If we can change availability, as happened with smoking, then things can change. Make sure the tasty, but healthy alternatives are visible and available.”
And, she says, you can still ensure a healthy diet yourself: “If you eat according to the Nutrition Center’s Wheel of Five, you don’t get that much of those processed foods.”
Seidell also says that processed and unhealthy food must become ‘less visible and less dominant’ in the supply. “Manufacturers will not find that an attractive measure, so you have to look to the government to do something about this.”
2024-02-29 16:56:11
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