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Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

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Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#101
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freshly baked bread is available to _everyone_. Buy some flour, take a cup of flour, mix some water, maybe some salt, squish it some and bake it. The downfall of society will happen within arms length of wisdom and knowledge.

Bread takes hours to make and lasts for one day. So unless you wanna wake up at 3 am (or have a dedicated stay-at-home person making bread every day) it's not really a realistic option for many people.

Real bread lasts a week, if stored appropriately. Though self-baking with sourdough is definitely not an option for everyone.

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#102
For anyone that's been confused by all the disjoint and contradictory nutritional information that's bombarding us these days, I'd recommend two books:

(Metabolical - Robert H. Lustig) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53240367-metabolical

(Drop Acid - David Perlmutter) https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/57505860

They are both new books, by two different authors, they both rally against processed food (and talk at length about what processed food IS) and, crucially, they are adamantly against dietary sugar.

The tone of both of them was a bit off-putting to me at first: they try to spend time convincing you that the food we have today is terrible and, if you are already convinced of that like I was, it's a bit grating. But keep going, there's good nuggets all over.

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to understand what the average American consumes the answer is whatever is on the shelf of their local Walmart (they sell groceries). The average American may assemble food from time to time but generally does not cook. That said, there are hundreds of millions of people in that country, so this is obviously a generalization, and should be treated as such. That said Lidl is making aggressive inroads into…

I totally believe it, but it is just so wild to me that it has gotten to the point where we can somewhat confidently say that most Americans just do not cook at all. I just don't even understand how that works, even if you have enough income, how do you have enough space to like store all the trash for the week? Don't you just get tired of restraunt food at some point?

It's wild to you because it's total bullshit.

> Today, 82 percent of the meals Americans eat are prepared at home, a much higher percentage than a decade ago, according to research from NPD Group Inc. cited by Bloomberg.

Uncited comments on HN are frequently confidently incorrect, especially when they are descriptions of average American culture

Maybe if you're a highly paid SWE in California with endless takeout options you never cook but that's an absurd proposition for flyover country

https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/news/2018/9/americans-ar...

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#104

For anyone that's been confused by all the disjoint and contradictory nutritional information that's bombarding us these days, I'd recommend two books: (Metabolical - Robert H. Lustig) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53240367-metabolical (Drop Acid - David Perlmutter) https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/57505860 They are both new books, by two different authors, they both rally against processed food (and talk…

What are some actionable takeaways? I would love to eliminate dietary sugar, but it's hard to do so if your entire family is not on the same page.

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally believe it, but it is just so wild to me that it has gotten to the point where we can somewhat confidently say that most Americans just do not cook at all. I just don't even understand how that works, even if you have enough income, how do you have enough space to like store all the trash for the week? Don't you just get tired of restraunt food at some point?

In the US in many places trash disposal is a flat rate included in your utility bill, rolled up into your rent, or you have a common dumpster area you can throw trash into for free. This isn't Switzerland where you have to pay two bucks for a LICENSED small plastic trash bag. Here you can generate as much residential trash as you want for the same price or for free if you drive the trash to the county dump yourself.…

> you can generate as much residential trash as you want for the same price or for free if you drive the trash to the county dump yourself.

They charge a fee if you do that in my county, and the "flat rate" is dependent on the size of your bin, as a proxy for how much trash you generate. If you have more trash than fits in your bin you have to buy stickers for the extra bags to pay for them to be picked up.

Where are you? I'm in the US

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally believe it, but it is just so wild to me that it has gotten to the point where we can somewhat confidently say that most Americans just do not cook at all. I just don't even understand how that works, even if you have enough income, how do you have enough space to like store all the trash for the week? Don't you just get tired of restraunt food at some point?

It's wild to you because it's total bullshit. > Today, 82 percent of the meals Americans eat are prepared at home, a much higher percentage than a decade ago, according to research from NPD Group Inc. cited by Bloomberg. Uncited comments on HN are frequently confidently incorrect, especially when they are descriptions of average American culture Maybe if you're a highly paid SWE in California with endless takeout opt…

Please, the meals that are so-called "prepared at home" in the statistics are mere assembly of highly processed ready to eat foods. Final assembly is hardly cooking. That said, in general more people are cooking from primary ingredients than in the recent past, I agree.

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#107
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tub6eEdmjzs heh... we have over fresh bakery shops IN EVERY STREET so you are no more than 10 house lengths away from one. It has no yeast, around 3% is salt but is made fresh and goes bad in hours so it is consumed HOT. I wonder if stuff like our centuries old tech can be replicated in more "modern" nations?

The problem in the US is housing density and dependence on cars. In the average US city a street may have an order of magnitude fewer people than a moderately dense city.

Zoning laws generally exclude businesses from opening in residential neighborhoods. So no neighborhood bakery, butcher, produce, pub, etc within walking distances. Change the zoning laws, change the car dependencies.

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#108
post #52
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just an aside: countertop bread machines are amazing these days. You can control the ingredients (i.e. eliminate preservatives) and have wildly inexpensive, fresh bread since you can buy breadflour in bulk (e.g. 50-lb bags).

Isn't flour highly processed?

I was confused too, but it's going to depend on "How" processed it is. If the flour still has all the bran, germ, and fiber. I would say it's not very processed (Minimally processed). If it's bleached, I would say that treading in Ultra-Processed Foods territory.

I'm using classification system called [NOVA]http://archive.wphna.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/WN-2016-...> that was developed by an international panel of food scientists and researchers. It splits foods into four categories:

Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: Think vegetables, grains, legumes, fruits, nuts, meats, seafood, herbs, spices, garlic, eggs and milk.

Processed foods: When ingredients such as oil, sugar or salt are added to foods and they are packaged, the result is processed foods. Examples are simple bread, cheese, tofu, and canned tuna or beans. These foods have been altered, but not in a way that’s detrimental to health.

Ultra-processed foods: These foods go through multiple processes (extrusion, molding, milling, etc.), contain many added ingredients and are highly manipulated. Examples are soft drinks, chips, chocolate, candy, ice-cream, sweetened breakfast cereals, packaged soups, chicken nuggets, hotdogs, fries and more.

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what the situation in many parts of the US is, but is not freshly baked bread, the kind with unsurprising ingredients and that goes stale when you'd expect it, not an option? The stuff made to sit on the supermarket's shelf for long times has such an odd consistency and flavor, very spongy and very tangy and sweet, you can't spread anything on it without toasting it first. I wouldn't take it as the stand…

If you want to understand what the average American consumes the answer is whatever is on the shelf of their local Walmart (they sell groceries). The average American may assemble food from time to time but generally does not cook. That said, there are hundreds of millions of people in that country, so this is obviously a generalization, and should be treated as such. That said Lidl is making aggressive inroads into…

If you want to understand what the average American consumes the answer is whatever is on the shelf of their local Walmart (they sell groceries).

This is the crux of the matter: we can only buy what is on our shelves. If we have to start looking at ingredients lists, I think we've already lost the plot. Why are these questionable things on our shelves in the first place? Likely because they're cheaper to make, or worse, there's some government subsidy involved. And I don't mean "questionable" as in plain junk food, because even then, we have to decipher labeling like chocolate vs "chocolate flavored candy". It can be hard to try to be reasonably healthy once you leave the the edge of the super market.

Re: Ultra-processed foods may contribute to cognitive decline

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally believe it, but it is just so wild to me that it has gotten to the point where we can somewhat confidently say that most Americans just do not cook at all. I just don't even understand how that works, even if you have enough income, how do you have enough space to like store all the trash for the week? Don't you just get tired of restraunt food at some point?

It's wild to you because it's total bullshit. > Today, 82 percent of the meals Americans eat are prepared at home, a much higher percentage than a decade ago, according to research from NPD Group Inc. cited by Bloomberg. Uncited comments on HN are frequently confidently incorrect, especially when they are descriptions of average American culture Maybe if you're a highly paid SWE in California with endless takeout opt…

Haha I see! The more I thought about it, the more it really didn't make sense.. Wouldn't all grocery stores be out of business?
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