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How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

nytimes.com

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Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#341

Post by tptacek »

uxamanda wrote: post #335
tptacek wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Because roasted cauliflower is so much better and more versatile and it keeps. Roast the cauliflower off on your toaster oven, stick it in a ziploc, and then put it in your fridge.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#342

Post by tptacek »

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.

100% of potato chips are bad for you. 0% of unsweetened yogurts are bad for you. You're defending a scheme that labels some of those yogurts as unhealthy, and some of the potato chips as healthy. Extremely simple issue.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#343

Post by tptacek »

tedunangst wrote: post #309
tptacek wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, "pink slime" refers to processed meat trim that is packaged and made palatable with meat glue.

Do you have a source for transglutiminase used to put the pink slime back together? This is the first I'm hearing it. I thought they just stirred it into the ground beef.

Stuff like this:

https://www.glutenfreesociety.org/meat-glue-the-hidden-ingre...

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#344

Post by at-fates-hands »

SoftTalker wrote: post #48
at-fates-hands wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My weekly routine now consists of going to local farmer's market and buying stuff from farms I trust. Going to local butchers to get grass fed, naturally raised meats. Then off to the local grocery store to get whatever else I need that week for the stuff I prepare at home. If you want to eat healthy, you certainly can, but takes quite a bit of effort and some additional cost. Processed and ultraprocessed food has ju…

I don't know why farmers markets are given such a benefit of trust. They are largely unregulated and uninspected. And you'll pay $8 for a head of lettuce.

This is why I only buy from the farms I know and trust. There's two families I know who sell at smaller markets in the city and one farm that is close enough to my house I go directly to their farm where they have a small setup where a lot of other locals go.

You're right though there are a lot of unsavory people who claim to be from local farms but very clearly are not. People who are selling sweet corn in May/June claiming their local. Sweet corn isn't normally harvested until late Summer, early Fall.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#345

Post by tptacek »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #323
tptacek wrote: post #93

This all has very big "uncured bacon" energy to me (if you didn't already know: there's no such thing; vendors of uncured bacon performatively drive the same chemical nitrite reaction using vegetable extracts). For example: yogurt becomes a UPF simply by dint of adding carrageenan, which is on the order of calling dashi a UPF because of the kombu. It's not that there isn't a very legitimate issue underneath all this:…

>For example: yogurt becomes a UPF simply by dint of adding carrageenan What the hell are you doing putting crap like that in your yogurt? Love, Europe

European yogurts are also stabilized with carrageenan. Also: you irradiate your dairy to the point where it's shelf stable, so you're nobody to talk. At least our milk doesn't glow in the dark.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#346

Post by uxamanda »

tptacek wrote: post #341
uxamanda wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> never put a raw cauliflower in your fridge Why?

Because roasted cauliflower is so much better and more versatile and it keeps. Roast the cauliflower off on your toaster oven, stick it in a ziploc, and then put it in your fridge.

Ah I see, I thought there was a health concern :-). Roasting it is a good idea, but FWIW raw cauliflower also keeps for a long time in a fridge.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#347

Post by bahama_mama »

Yizahi wrote: post #38
SirFatty wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...how hard it is to find healthy food options compared to the unhealthy ones." Sure, if you limit your purchases to Dollar General and Casey's. If you spent time in an actual grocery store, you'd find that your comment isn't true.

The problem is that to a European citizen this is a bit unexpected. In Europe, in all countries, you can find roughly the same level of "safeness" of food across all tiers of stores. Go to a cheapest one and the most expensive one, and the yogurt, tomatoes or meat would be approximately the same quality and have the same nutritional components. The only difference would be that expensive store would additionally carr…

The data does not support your thesis. US ranks 3rd in Quality and Safety of foods [1]. USDA Prime beef ribeye will have similar quality from variety of stores, USDA Choice will be similar across multiple stores as well.

US does not have a problem with food safety, it has a problem with widely available UPF with many other factors (price, time, distance to fresh produce etc).

[1] https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/food-sec...

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#348

Post by tptacek »

uxamanda wrote: post #346
tptacek wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because roasted cauliflower is so much better and more versatile and it keeps. Roast the cauliflower off on your toaster oven, stick it in a ziploc, and then put it in your fridge.

Ah I see, I thought there was a health concern :-). Roasting it is a good idea, but FWIW raw cauliflower also keeps for a long time in a fridge.

It is a health concern! You'll eat a lot more cauliflower if you roast it all and cauliflower is good for you.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#349

Post by bahama_mama »

supportengineer wrote: post #109
nradov wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SF Bay Area is hardly an outlier. There may be more specialty grocery stores here, but the large supermarkets where most consumers buy most of their food are the same as anywhere else. If you compare a Safeway in Mountain View, CA to a Publix in Daytona Beach, FL or a Kroger in Toledo, OH there isn't much difference in the products available.

Safeway has an in-house organic brand, "O Organics". I can easily go to Safeway and pick up only organic foods. I don't know if that's true for Publix or Kroger. UPDATE: ChatGPT tells me that at Publix it's called "GreenWise Organic" and at Kroger it's called "Simple Truth Organic"

Organic food does not make it any healthier than non-organic choice. Organic UPF will still be UPF with excess of sugar/salt.

Re: How America got hooked on ultraprocessed foods

#350

Post by bahama_mama »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #24
SirFatty wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...how hard it is to find healthy food options compared to the unhealthy ones." Sure, if you limit your purchases to Dollar General and Casey's. If you spent time in an actual grocery store, you'd find that your comment isn't true.

The comment is still true regardless of the fact that Whole Foods exists. It is genuinely more difficult to find healthy food in the US than abroad. (i'm ignoring the additional fact that the US has many more food deserts than abroad. even within rich neighborhoods with many expansive grocery stores, those stores have more unhealthy options and fewer healthy options than abroad, unless it's specifically a "health foo…

> The comment is still true regardless of the fact that Whole Foods exists. It is genuinely more difficult to find healthy food in the US than abroad.

As an european immigrant to US who still spends lots of time in EU, this is not true. It's relatively easy to find grocery stores in higher density areas with fresh produce/meats.

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