Read [this article](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/01/health/worst-ultraprocessed-food-early-death-wellness) and though I’m scientifically literate and understand how scientific research can be overdramatized by the media, I’m worried. How I avoid ultra processed food, it is apparently everything. Ugh
In: Biology
Here’s how you make ‘ultra processed’ foods. A food company effectively disassembles different food types into raw components. They then build it back up by adding in components that are the most cost effective and the ones that humans find most tasty/satisfying (AKA addictive).
It’s like baking a loaf of bread except instead of grinding the wheat and adding yeast and a few seasonings, you take all the wheat, break it down, sell off everything but the carbs, add in a butt load of salt and substitute high fructose corn syrup for the sugar for cost reasons. Yeast is also too expensive so you substitute a petrochemical alternative, it’s not shelf stable so you add an artificial preservative so that it can last months etc, etc, etc.
To the consumer, your ultra processed bread substitute has better mouth feel, is ultra delicious and lasts forever. You can eat it all day and you love it. It’s designed to be delicious. You and your taste buds crave it. Unfortunately, to your bodies actual needs, it’s nothing but empty carbs mixed with a week’s worth of sugar and salt… all while missing essential vitamins and nutrients that have been stripped away.
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