I've tried to eliminate ultraprocessed food from my diet and now I try my best to eat as much fiber as possible. I lost about 15 kilograms between doing this and reducing my sugar/alcohol intake. It was very difficult initially since I always felt hungry but I don't even think about it now, after about a year. I afeel a lot better too. This is just one data point, so I can't say it'll definitely work for everyone, but it's worth a try.
How Bad Are Ultraprocessed Foods, Really?
Submitted 7 months ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to nyt_gift_articles@sopuli.xyz
Comments
xep@fedia.io 7 months ago
Delphia@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Thats confirmation bias.
The fact is that cutting out carbs results in weight loss because you cut calories by cutting carbs, cutting out processed foods will do largely the same. Going vegetarian often results in weight loss, “Intermittent fasting” doesnt have any special effect on the body, provided you dont eat like a pig in your feeding window its just the fact you’re eating during less time in the day.
Not disputing you got great results or that cutting out processed food cant have other benefits, but I work out alot and eat a lot of “ultra processed” protein powder/protein bars and premade meals and I’ve also seen amazing results.
Nollij@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
There’s an extra factor in there, at least for some people. Carbs, particularly processed carbs, create an insulin response. That insulin response makes you hungry. Ever wondered about the cliche about eating Chinese food and being hungry an hour later? It’s from the rice, with its high glycemic index. It doesn’t affect everyone, but it does affect a lot of people.
No surprise, you eat less when you’re less hungry (or hungry less of the time). It’s also where intermittent fasting comes in, although that’s a lot tougher to demonstrate.
xep@fedia.io 7 months ago
I'm not attributing my weight loss to not eating ultraprocessed food, but I'm describing what I did. No longer eating ultraprocessed food was part of it. So, it's an anecdote about what's worked for me, and I'm not sure if there's any confirmation bias in that, but I also think you are welcome to interpret what I said in any way you wish.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
“Ultaprocessed” is a stupid classification.
Finnish rye bread is classified as “ultraprocessed” due to its more complex production process but it better for you than white bread.
Lots of soy products count as “ultraprocessed” too.
What people actually mean when discussing “ultraprocessed” foods, are foods designed to taste good without making you feel satisfied. Causing you to eat/buy more of it than you should, more than you would otherwise even desire to.
Yes, when you create a product like that, it often ends up classifying as “ultraprocessed”. But not all ultraprocessed food products are a problem, and not all non-processed foods lack the “I wanna eat more” factor that these products go for.
xep@fedia.io 7 months ago
I'd posit that quibbling over food classification plays right into the hands of the people who don't want you to otherwise think too much about what food you buy and eat. The simplicity is likely intentional and therefore some things are bound to be classified poorly, but that's okay because we can call those out. It catches the vast majority of what you'd like to identify.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
That makes no sense.
My taking issue with oversimplification, doesn’t mean I’m advocating for less thought to be put into the matter.
It means the opposite.
We can do better than simply “how much has this been processed” which is just another word for “preparation”.
“Ultraprocessed” makes it seem like the act of preparing the food somehow ruins it, when the real problem is all the other differences between industrially prepared food vs how you’d turn individual “unprocessed” ingredients into a meal, cookies, or whatever else at home.
A bowl of noodles consumed in a restaurant would be classified exactly the same as a bowl of sodium-overloaded instant ones, because the classification has literally nothing to do with what the food actually contains, merely how far removed it is from a raw ingredient.
Donkter@lemmy.world 7 months ago
This picture is about to fuck me up with the spam and ramen cheese dog.
NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Would you eat it?
Acedia@lemmy.world 7 months ago
It just needs a knife and some hot water
ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
Oh fam have I got a treat for you, that picture is basically the ingredients list for Korean budae jjigae. One of my favorite culinary masterpieces, look it up
Delphia@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Did the study also take calorie control into account?
GluWu@lemm.ee 7 months ago
I was hoping there would be something about the health effects of ultraprocessed foods. This is just about over eating.
grue@lemmy.world 7 months ago
That is the effect of ultraprocessed foods: they’re designed to be hyperpalatable so that people will eat (and therefore buy) more.
fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Huh, good point. They spend a lot of money researching how to make them addictive.
silence7@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
Which is in part caused by the foods — they’re engineered to overcome peoples’ natural limits to how much they eat.