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Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

cnn.com

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Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#51

Post by omginternets »

cortesoft wrote: post #42
omginternets wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rules of thumb: 1. Don't buy meals; buy ingredients. 2. The longer the list of ingredients, the more likely it is to be "highly" processed 3. The way you avoid 'highly' processed stuff is to avoid processing altogether. Buy corn you have to husk, meat you have to cut, fish you have to filet, wine you have to uncork, bread you have to slice, etc.

> Buy corn you have to husk, meat you have to cut, fish you have to filet, wine you have to uncork, bread you have to slice, etc. Ok, this is just silly. Cutting your own meat doesn't make it healthier than having a butcher cut it for you. Box wine is no more or less healthy than bottled wine with a cork. Slicing bread yourself doesn't change its health contents. Its statements like these that make the whole argument…

It's a rule of thumb, friend. It actually does make a difference in the aggregate, as evidenced by the extra ingredients you will find in pre-processed supermarket meat. Have a look at what's in your hot dogs, for example.

Obvious exceptions apply, such as going to the butcher, as you have astutely observed. These do not invalidate the rule-of-thumb.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#52

Post by mjburgess »

omginternets wrote: post #48
kayodelycaon wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know anything how to cook anything from fresh ingredients that takes just 15 minutes from entering the kitchen to going to the table to eat. It takes 7 minutes for my kettle to bring 1.5 L of water to boil. (Yay 120v…) Instant oatmeal I guess? Anything requiring dairy or eggs won’t work.

Ok, so you can add 5 mins to set the table. Are we really going to nit-pick? If you can't find 30 mins to make a meal, lowering that to 15 mins isn't going to make a difference. Just get up 30 mins earlier if it comes to that. If you can't do that, then yeah ... you might be part of the .005% of people who are really in a bind, and physically cannot cook for themselves. My advice does not apply to such cases, and I c…

You're not pricing the stress and emotional labour required to do this at the end of the day, for people who also have to look after children; themselves, etc.

This isnt an issue of whether people can physically move.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#53

Post by omginternets »

cortesoft wrote: post #34
omginternets wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. I work long hours and still find time to cook. Dinner takes about 15 mins to prepare, on average. I think the issue has more to do with people not knowing how to cook things that are both simple and nutritious. I really feel for people who are trying to learn; every beginner's cookbook is full of things that require specific ingredients, complicated prep work, or a shit-ton of chopping. I've toyed around with th…

> Dinner takes about 15 mins to prepare, on average. This doesn't include time to meal plan, grocery shop, and clean dishes. Also, 15 minutes isn't a ton of time, but it isn't nothing.

If you truly cannot find 15-30 mins for this, then I have no advice to offer.

For the rest, having your groceries delivered is one solution. Life is about trade-offs.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#54

Post by vkk8 »

rendang wrote: post #15

As a layman non-scientist, I wonder why we see so many relatively low-value observational studies in diet/nutrition, often with results that get contradicted or fail to replicate a few years later. What would prevent us from doing a study like this: take 1000 diverse subjects, assign each of them a lab assistant, and for 2+ years, diligently track everything they eat, their exercise, sleep, etc. You could pay each pa…

> As a layman non-scientist, I wonder why we see so many relatively low-value observational studies in diet/nutrition, often with results that get contradicted or fail to replicate a few years later.

On my peak fitness enthusiasm I kept a rigorous food diary for some time and it was such a pain in the ass that I don't believe for a second that food diaries coming from people who are not 100% committed and interested in keeping one are accurate at all. People would often forget to log small snacks they have, or estimate portion sizes completely wrong, or neglect logging sauces, oils, condiments, etc.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#55

Post by kristjansson »

omarhaneef wrote: post #8

I wish I knew what was ultraprocessed. > "Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "industrial formulations of food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain little or no whole foods and typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives," according to the study. But if I have a package that says it is whole grain or whatever, how do I know if it is or isn't…

"packaged" alone should be you first indication.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#56

Post by omginternets »

mjburgess wrote: post #52
omginternets wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so you can add 5 mins to set the table. Are we really going to nit-pick? If you can't find 30 mins to make a meal, lowering that to 15 mins isn't going to make a difference. Just get up 30 mins earlier if it comes to that. If you can't do that, then yeah ... you might be part of the .005% of people who are really in a bind, and physically cannot cook for themselves. My advice does not apply to such cases, and I c…

You're not pricing the stress and emotional labour required to do this at the end of the day, for people who also have to look after children; themselves, etc. This isnt an issue of whether people can physically move.

If you're not in a place where you can find 15-30 mins to cook for yourself, you indeed have much bigger problems that cooking advice cannot solve. I sincerely wish you fair winds.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#57

Post by sudden_dystopia »

lezojeda wrote: post #18
pessimizer wrote: post #3

> “People need to know they should cook more and prepare their own food from scratch. I know. We say we don’t have time but it really doesn’t take that much time,” Suemoto said. This is bullshit in a very important way: you have to know how to cook. Bring back home economics classes.

And tbh, it really does take time to prepare a good meal, including washing dishes and all that. For those of us living alone it takes a good chunk of our free time after work.

No doubt. But how much time and money could obesity and cognitive decline cost you?

There are plenty of less complicated, one pot meal recipes littering the internet. Have you tried an Instapot or a nice air fryer?

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#58

Post by gruez »

doliveira wrote: post #25
omarhaneef wrote: post #8

I wish I knew what was ultraprocessed. > "Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "industrial formulations of food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain little or no whole foods and typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives," according to the study. But if I have a package that says it is whole grain or whatever, how do I know if it is or isn't…

Ultraprocessed for me means "truly delicious and dopamine-inducing". Not that I don't find other food tasty, but something that feels engineered to please your tongue is usually ultraprocessed.

>but something that feels engineered to please your tongue is usually ultraprocessed.

That describes nearly all modern cultivars of fruits/vegetables.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#59

Post by xchaotic »

I (and other) call Bs on classifying something as processed or ultra processed as inherently bad. Baby formulas, workout premixes, and also home cooking are all forms of processed food. It’s what you put in it and also at what ratio is what matters most. If you get processed food that has all the good oils and fiber and proteins like YFood or Soylent that’s actually more healthy than say eating “unprocessed” fried potatoes for example.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#60

Post by helmholtz »

Animats wrote: post #28

It's not clear that "ultraprocessed" is the issue. The article says "they are usually very high in sugar, salt and fat". Too much salt and sugar are known to be problems. That has nothing to do with processing. Although it does have to do with what will sell. The author has a "natural" bias.

This seems like unnecessary nitpicking. What would you say are examples of ultraprocessed food that's not full of salt, sugar and fat?
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