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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

#121
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 is something that often bothers me about the "real food" or similar debate that is largely emotional more than anything else.

What this should all build down to is the nutritional content of the food. Just because I go to a local farmers market and buy the greatest "organic" or "non-gmo" (or insert some other mostly meaningless thing that has been turned into a way to scare consumers to spend more money) and buy the greatest looking apples I can find.

That isn't going to do a damn thing if I turn around and try to replicate the McDonalds (or I guess Popeyes now?) fried apple pie. It is still horrible for me and I highly doubt there is much if any difference in the little bit of vitamins I would get from the apples still in the pie.

Meanwhile I can go for about as processed as you can get, and do Soylent or Huel and have a pretty damn balanced diet if I could somehow sustain myself entirely on that (more of a willpower thing and not an issue with the food itself).

This also ignores the major clasism that has made its way into how people eat and what food they have access to. There is a reason it tends to be urban well off white people going on and on about this stuff.

I cringe anytime I hear the words "real" or "whole" food as if that has any real meaning outside of a marketing term.

If anything this tells me that we need to do better with how we process food, not that processed food itself is the issue.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#122
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm betting they go in the same direction as margarine.

Does Meati change your mind? This startup is growing a specific species of fungus that is high protein and vitamin rich. I haven’t tried it but reviews so far are saying it cooks, tastes and feels like meat.

That's not exactly lab-grown meat. But to your question, it's hard to take bets on individual things, so I'll answer this way: I'll bet against anything lab-grown or highly processed (Meati included), and I expect to make money on average.

Time will tell :)

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#123
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.

Salt is a preservative and a key ingredient behind "ultraprocessed products". Are there ultraprocessed products with minimal amount of salt?

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#124
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…

What do you think you could learn from such an expensive study? It seems too short and unfocused to learn anything meaningful.

Really? I would think weight loss, inflammation, and psychological health measures would at least be affected on a timescale of a couple years, if not risks for things like cancer and heart disease.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#125
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but something that feels engineered to please your tongue is usually ultraprocessed. That describes nearly all modern cultivars of fruits/vegetables.

I envy you if you feel that way about apples and oranges just like you feel about cookies and pizza

Obviously I don't think apples/oranges are in the same category as cookies/pizza. The reason why I said they fit the criteria for "ultraprocessed" is to show how absurd your rule is (ie. "something that feels engineered to please your tongue is usually ultraprocessed").

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think you could learn from such an expensive study? It seems too short and unfocused to learn anything meaningful.

Really? I would think weight loss, inflammation, and psychological health measures would at least be affected on a timescale of a couple years, if not risks for things like cancer and heart disease.

Not for an observational study. There is simy too much variation and too many confounding factors. There would be no statistical power and infinite questions on the results.

Essentially everyone's condition and situation would be different.

Keep in mind that 1000 people is the size you might expect for a controlled trial where you change one single thing you expect to have a big impact like a cancer medication and even then you try to screen the patients to have as little variation as possible.

Re: Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this, too, until I had kids. I tried this... they didn't eat, then couldn't fall asleep because they were hungry, so stayed up all night crying because they were hungry. Tried again, they took a few bites then threw it all up. Maybe they would have broken after a few more days of starvation, but I didn't have it in me to do it.

What were you trying to feed your kids that they wouldn’t eat anything at all for days? I let my son choose breakfast and lunch, within reason. And then mommy and I choose dinner. If he doesn’t like dinner he can have some fruit or sometimes he makes a pb&j if he is hungrier. If he eats dinner we made, he can have a treat. No dinner, no treat. There is no fight or arguing, that’s just the established rules now and he…

Saying either he can eat what we eat or have a safe alternative sounds like the exact opposite of eat or go hungry that the thread is about. Your dinner time routine sounds very reasonable. I'm a new parent and our methods are growing into something similar.
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