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https://github.com/Barabasi-Lab/GroceryDB https://github.com/Barabasi-Lab/GroceryDB > we introduce GroceryDB, a database with over 50,000 food items sold by Wa

https://github.com/Barabasi-Lab/GroceryDB https://github.com/Barabasi-Lab/GroceryDB > we introduce GroceryDB, a database with over 50,000 food items sold by Walmart, Target, and Wholefoods, unveiling the degree of processing characterizing each food. GroceryDB indicates that 73% of the US food supply is ultra-processed, and on average ultra-processed foods are 52% cheaper than minimally-processed alternatives. We find that the nutritional choices of the consumers, translated as the degree of food processing, strongly depend on the food categories and grocery stores. We show that there is no single nutrient or ingredient "bio-marker" for ultra-processed food, allowing us to quantify the individual contribution of over 1,000 ingredients to ultra-processing. GroceryDB and the associated https://www.TrueFood.tech https://www.TrueFood.tech website make this information available, aiming to simultaneously empower consumers to make healthy food choices, and aid policy makers to reform the food supply. Machine Learning Prediction of Food Processing (2021), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257615 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257615 GroceryDB: Prevalence of Processed Food in Grocery Stores (2022), https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.23.22274217 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.23.22274217

windowshopping 3y ago
This site makes no sense to me. I looked up "plain hummus" and it has a score of 70? https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_cedars-mediterranean-foods-cedars-original-hummus-8-oz-b00032e15u?store=all https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_cedars-mediterranean-fo... But the ingredient list shows almost zero additives. The same goes for a lot of other hummuses, but then some of them have a score of 1 despite having ingredient lists that are not discernably different. https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_just-hummus-original-hummus-75-oz-b089x1wfph?store=all https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_just-hummus-original-hu... Idk. Maybe I'm missing something here. The website goes on to say: > In this example the Organic Plain Yogurt is at the 4th percentile among all yogurts, meaning if we have 100 different yogurts on a shelf then 95 of them are more processed than the Organic Plain Yogurt. So, the 70 just means only 30% of all hummus are more processed than this one? But, does that really tell me anything about how processed the hummus is objectively? What if all hummus is extremely highly processed, how would this site indicate that? A 1 could still be highly processed in a category that is generally ultra-processed. :/
- walterbell 3y ago
  > I looked up "plain hummus" and it has a score of 70? But the ingredient list shows almost zero additives. Almost zero != zero. Your cited hummus with a score of 70 includes the additive "guar gum". Other hummus vendors with a score of 1 do not include that additive, so the simple numerical score succeeds in flagging the product for manual human review. Washington Post (2022) article lists guar gum as an ultra-processed additive, https://archive.is/LG1V1 https://archive.is/LG1V1 Many ultra-processed foods are made in industrial machines that subject grains, corn and other raw ingredients to extremely high pressures and temperatures. This can destroy micronutrients and create new compounds that can be harmful, including carcinogens, said Carlos A. Monteiro, an expert on ultra-processed foods and a professor of nutrition and public health at the School of Public Health at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. “These foods contain many chemical compounds that are not nutrients,” he added. Ultra-processed foods often contain an array of additives whose effects on our health we don’t yet fully understand, said Mozaffarian. “It’s not just the salt and sugar, which are the obvious ones, but the artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, emulsifiers, stabilizers, guar gum and xanthan gum,” he said. “We don’t know that they’re innocuous.”
  - vel0city 3y ago
    So why should I be so concerned about my hummus having a little bit of guar gum in it?
    - itishappy 3y ago
      It's an ultra-processed chemical with little to no nutritional value that's not listed as an ingredient in hummus recipes or included in competing products. Maybe it's fine! Your personal level of concern may vary, but if it's anything but zero, then surely it's more worthy of concern than hummus without guar gum.
      - vel0city 3y ago
        Ultra processed chemical. It's a bean that's roasted, crushed, and sieved. Coffee is also an ultra processed chemical under your definition. Once again really showing this idea that "ultra processed" seems to carry no real meaning, as once again pretty much any cooked food can be called "ultra processed". Cooking routinely adds things for no nutritional benefit but because it changes the texture or taste to something better. Adding some cinnamon to oatmeal or a red pepper flakes to a pasta sauce isn't going to change the nutritional benefits by any large margin, but I do it because it helps me enjoy the food more. You don't necessarily add egg to cake mix for the nutritional benefit the egg provides you do it so its springier and has a better texture. One might add a little guar gum to hummus to make it thicker and have a slightly different mouth feel which some might prefer. What exactly about guar gum is bad?

windowshopping 3y ago

This site makes no sense to me. I looked up "plain hummus" and it has a score of 70? https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_cedars-mediterranean-foods-cedars-original-hummus-8-oz-b00032e15u?store=all https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_cedars-mediterranean-fo... But the ingredient list shows almost zero additives. The same goes for a lot of other hummuses, but then some of them have a score of 1 despite having ingredient lists that are not discernably different. https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_just-hummus-original-hummus-75-oz-b089x1wfph?store=all https://www.truefood.tech/product/wf_just-hummus-original-hu... Idk. Maybe I'm missing something here. The website goes on to say: > In this example the Organic Plain Yogurt is at the 4th percentile among all yogurts, meaning if we have 100 different yogurts on a shelf then 95 of them are more processed than the Organic Plain Yogurt. So, the 70 just means only 30% of all hummus are more processed than this one? But, does that really tell me anything about how processed the hummus is objectively? What if all hummus is extremely highly processed, how would this site indicate that? A 1 could still be highly processed in a category that is generally ultra-processed. :/

walterbell 3y ago
> I looked up "plain hummus" and it has a score of 70? But the ingredient list shows almost zero additives. Almost zero != zero. Your cited hummus with a score of 70 includes the additive "guar gum". Other hummus vendors with a score of 1 do not include that additive, so the simple numerical score succeeds in flagging the product for manual human review. Washington Post (2022) article lists guar gum as an ultra-processed additive, https://archive.is/LG1V1 https://archive.is/LG1V1 Many ultra-processed foods are made in industrial machines that subject grains, corn and other raw ingredients to extremely high pressures and temperatures. This can destroy micronutrients and create new compounds that can be harmful, including carcinogens, said Carlos A. Monteiro, an expert on ultra-processed foods and a professor of nutrition and public health at the School of Public Health at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. “These foods contain many chemical compounds that are not nutrients,” he added. Ultra-processed foods often contain an array of additives whose effects on our health we don’t yet fully understand, said Mozaffarian. “It’s not just the salt and sugar, which are the obvious ones, but the artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, emulsifiers, stabilizers, guar gum and xanthan gum,” he said. “We don’t know that they’re innocuous.”
- vel0city 3y ago
  So why should I be so concerned about my hummus having a little bit of guar gum in it?
  - itishappy 3y ago
    It's an ultra-processed chemical with little to no nutritional value that's not listed as an ingredient in hummus recipes or included in competing products. Maybe it's fine! Your personal level of concern may vary, but if it's anything but zero, then surely it's more worthy of concern than hummus without guar gum.
    - vel0city 3y ago
      Ultra processed chemical. It's a bean that's roasted, crushed, and sieved. Coffee is also an ultra processed chemical under your definition. Once again really showing this idea that "ultra processed" seems to carry no real meaning, as once again pretty much any cooked food can be called "ultra processed". Cooking routinely adds things for no nutritional benefit but because it changes the texture or taste to something better. Adding some cinnamon to oatmeal or a red pepper flakes to a pasta sauce isn't going to change the nutritional benefits by any large margin, but I do it because it helps me enjoy the food more. You don't necessarily add egg to cake mix for the nutritional benefit the egg provides you do it so its springier and has a better texture. One might add a little guar gum to hummus to make it thicker and have a slightly different mouth feel which some might prefer. What exactly about guar gum is bad?