How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods • Hacker News Board

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#331

Post by franktankbank » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 2:20 PM UTC

12345hn6789 wrote: post #227

talkingtab wrote: post #133

People in the US are so trained by the food industry, that they do not know what good food is. Yogurt for example. Here is an experiment you can do at home if you want to disbelieve my statement. Step #1 Make good yogurt and eat it. 1. Go buy a quart of milk, full fat. 2. Buy some yogurt culture. Bulgarian preferred. 3. Follow the directions. You need to keep the temp at around 110F, warm water bath, heating pad, hot…

Finding full fat, no sugar added yogurt is quite easy, and completely subjectively up to taste. You may make your own yogurt yes. But perhaps the flavor difference you are experiencing is due to the intensive labor you spent time to produce said yogurt. - https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/painterland-sisters... - https://www.hy-vee.com/aisles-online/p/2284457/Siggis-4-Milk... - https://www.jewelosco.com/shop/s…

Oh no, I'm making yogurt to eat and the only reason it tastes good is that I did it myself! Drat the uncertainty principle!

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#332

Post by positr0n » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 2:24 PM UTC

jmathai wrote: post #193

supportengineer wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This begs the question - is it reasonable for the consumer to put in a little work - reading labels and doing research outside of the grocery store? I find that you do the research once, and then you know what to buy next time.

The amount of work the consumer puts in is matched by food makers. You'll see the deceptive marketing on so many foods. "No sugar added" no longer means no added sweetening agent. It means that sugar was replaced by alternative sweeteners. It's exhausting being a consumer these days.

Are we still talking about yogurt? I do not find it difficult or have to put in any work to buy low sugar yogurt. I buy large amounts of full fat zero added sugar Greek yogurt and yogurt cups with 2g of added sugar and there are always multiple options clearly labeled on the shelf among all the other more sugary options.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#333

Post by talkingtab » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:08 PM UTC

12345hn6789 wrote: post #227

talkingtab wrote: post #133

People in the US are so trained by the food industry, that they do not know what good food is. Yogurt for example. Here is an experiment you can do at home if you want to disbelieve my statement. Step #1 Make good yogurt and eat it. 1. Go buy a quart of milk, full fat. 2. Buy some yogurt culture. Bulgarian preferred. 3. Follow the directions. You need to keep the temp at around 110F, warm water bath, heating pad, hot…

Finding full fat, no sugar added yogurt is quite easy, and completely subjectively up to taste. You may make your own yogurt yes. But perhaps the flavor difference you are experiencing is due to the intensive labor you spent time to produce said yogurt. - https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/painterland-sisters... - https://www.hy-vee.com/aisles-online/p/2284457/Siggis-4-Milk... - https://www.jewelosco.com/shop/s…

As for the coffee roasting part, that is something that is near and dear to my heart.

I have been roasting my own coffee for decades. The part about a tough time getting green beans is just plain, factually wrong. SweetMarias.com among many others has an outstanding selection, low cost shipping and good prices. A better selection of beans than any specialty roaster.

My current setup is a gas one butane stove with propane adapter. $56. A 4" section of stove pipe (for wood stoves) $?, and an 8 cup crank flour sifter $20-$30. I've been using this variation (instead of a cheap heat gun) for the last year. You have to deal with the smoke, with either a stove vent or outside.

My testament to the quality of the coffee I make is that I have consistently roasted in the snow and cold. I would not consistently do that if the cost/benefit was not far in the benefit column.

My experience contradicts each of the points you made about roasting beans. Maybe not #1, depending on what you like and how much you want to spend, but even that one is arguable.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#334

Post by UncleMeat » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:14 PM UTC

Amezarak wrote: post #327

UncleMeat wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But bans on UPF wouldn't actually do that. Potato chips aren't ultraprocessed, but they sure seem like hyperpalatable low-satiety foods. Pastrami is ultraprocessed but doesn't seem like it is any more hyperpalatable or low-satiety than roast beef.

Almost all potato chips are UPF. Even the ones that aren’t so bad would be much more expensive if they had to be fried in olive oil or lard instead of UPF ingredients like canola oil.

It is weird to me that the boundary between seed oil panic and upf panic appears to be so fuzzy.

The nova classification has canola oil as Group 2, by the way.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#335

Post by uxamanda » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:34 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #230

neilfrndes wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken really opened my eyes about UPF. I highly recommend it. Here is a video of him delivering a lecture at the royal institution about the topic: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1oOoYnCfJs I don't think adding kombu to dashi would count as UPF according to the book's definition.

I don't know that it does, but I do know that carrageenan does, and they're both just seaweed extracts. Later This video is really frustrating. The first half of it is making relatively banal arguments about the importance of food to health. He's setting up an argument that I think basically everybody agrees with (hyperpalatable packaged food are a major driver of illness). But then he gets to UPFs, says the definiti…

> never put a raw cauliflower in your fridge

Why?

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#336

Post by IAmBroom » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:43 PM UTC

badc0ffee wrote: post #201

tptacek wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can go to any Asian grocer and get thin-sliced pork belly and cook it up yourself to see the difference. It is not subtle. For American bacon flavor, you need nitrites (nitrates are a slow-release source of nitrites).

Also you need to smoke it.

Only if you want it to be good.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#337

Post by IAmBroom » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:46 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #260

tptacek wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some yogurt formulations will separate without it.

Yeah you get whey sure. Not an issue either dump it out or stir it.

As a fellow fermenter of yogurt, I get you. But I guarantee that will not survive competition in the marketplace.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#338

Post by IAmBroom » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:50 PM UTC

jerlam wrote: post #285

stonemetal12 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American version "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" started as a breakfast cereal marketing line, not an endorsement for eating an "English breakfast". I will take the science over old wives tales and marketing bs any day. Even if the science is as poorly done as most nutrition science is.

I always thought the emphasis on breakfast originated in cultures or times where it would be followed by a long day of manual labor. This also ignores that most European countries emphasize breakfast even less than Americans, and that the British (home of the English breakfast) have a lower life expectancy than most of their western European peers (but not as low as Americans).

Both might be true, but the saying about "most important meal of the day" was genuinely marketing lies.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#339

Post by IAmBroom » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:52 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #317

Do you know of any research showing that ultra-processed food in general is bad? The only thing I found was comparing ultra-processed food with other food with the same nutritional value that concluded that people get fatter on UPF because they eat more of it. The only conclusion I could draw from it is that UPF is just tastier. (or hyper palatable if you want to make it sound more sinister)

Not to be glib, but the answer to your question is as simple as

https://www.google.com/search?q=research+showing+that+ultra-...

Spoiler: it increases your chance of cancer and other mortality issues. And makes you fat.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#340

Post by IAmBroom » Fri, Oct 17, 2025, 3:56 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #228

Why is someone so determined to force this "ultraprocessed foods" meme? Is it just so they can get a government definition of "ultraprocessed foods" that somehow doesn't include foods that are 1/3 teflon by weight? There are plenty of specific processes that are extremely questionable and probably dangerous. Europe bans a lot of them, or to be fair almost everybody bans them but the US. But somehow, when the referenc…

This "meme" has been scientifically studied. Carefully defining a term so that the industry can't simply sidestep it ("no added sugar! - if you don't count apple juice) is difficult.