Surprisingly, even packaged foods that contain healthy components can qualify as ultra-processed.
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The Food Compass system scores foods based on variables like the amounts of refined grains and sugars, processing and healthful ingredients. People who ate better-scoring foods had better overall health.
What we eat matters, and having just the right amount of essential nutrients is key to our overall health.
Niusha Shodja and Saina Heshmati, Storylab
Ultra-processed foods that contributed the most dietary energy for Aussies included ready-made meals, fast food, pastries, buns, cakes, breakfast cereals, fruit drinks, iced tea and confectionery.
Ripe berries and sugar crystals are both sweet, but one offers much more than just calories.
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Sugar gets a bad rap, but exactly which sugar is meant? Nutrient-dense sweet ripe fruits are a far cry from refined table sugar – and their differences can have big health implications.
A diet high in sugary foods can affect brain development in children.
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Lina Begdache, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Kids often crave processed sugary foods. But research shows that consuming too many treats during childhood and adolescence may lead to behavioral and emotional problems.
You might like both, but guess which has addictive properties.
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It’s not clear how health claims could be substantiated, enforced or understood, but there are other ways to encourage healthy food choices.
Eating more fruits, vegetables and nuts can make a meaningful impact on a person’s health – and the planet’s too.
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A new study puts numbers to the health and environmental benefits – or impacts – of individual foods and shows how small changes can make a significant difference.
Fungi make up a small but important part of gut microbiomes.
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Fungi are a small but important part of the gut microbiome. A new study in mice shows that how much weight mice gain on a processed food diet depends on this fungal microbiome.
Crisco’s main ingredient, cottonseed oil, had a bad rap. So marketers decided to focus on the ‘purity’ of factory food processing – a successful strategy that other brands would mimic.
There’s more behind that vegan burger than it seems.
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When a manufacturer lists a serving size on their food label, it’s based on their expectations of what you’ll eat, not what the dietary guidelines recommend.
To understand how healthy a food is, we often look at fats and proteins, vitamins and minerals. But this approach overlooks one property that’s a key part of a food’s health potential – its structure.
Ultra-processed products have little or no intact ‘food’ remaining in them. And much-praised industry led reformulation is doing nothing effective about this.
Don’t shun processed or ultra-processed foods entirely. Not only do they save families time and money, many processed foods have been unfairly maligned and can be nutritious as well as economical and convenient.
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Processed foods can be nutritious as well as economical and convenient. So let’s stop demonizing processed foods, and ease up on those who turn to them for convenience and price.
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sustainability, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University