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I wish these sort of articles would stop using vague, catch-all categories like "ultra-processed" and instead explain the specific ingredients in these foods th

by Gormo 2y ago

I wish these sort of articles would stop using vague, catch-all categories like "ultra-processed" and instead explain the specific ingredients in these foods that are thought to be harmful. Valid but insufficiently detailed arguments are indistinguishable from bullshit, and public discourse today is swimming in bullshit. And unless someone is are adding tar and nicotine to chicken nuggets and ginger ale, saying these "ultra-processed" foods have more in common with a cigarette than to fruits and vegetables is disingenuous bullshit.

Symbiote 2y ago
Here's a commonly accepted definition: > Industrially manufactured food products made up of several ingredients (formulations) including sugar, oils, fats and salt (generally in combination and in higher amounts than in processed foods) and food substances of no or rare culinary use (such as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, modified starches and protein isolates). Group 1 foods are absent or represent a small proportion of the ingredients in the formulation. Processes enabling the manufacture of ultra-processed foods include industrial techniques such as extrusion, moulding and pre-frying; application of additives including those whose function is to make the final product palatable or hyperpalatable such as flavours, colourants, non-sugar sweeteners and emulsifiers; and sophisticated packaging, usually with synthetic materials. Processes and ingredients here are designed to create highly profitable (low-cost ingredients, long shelf-life, emphatic branding), convenient (ready-to-(h)eat or to drink), tasteful alternatives to all other Nova food groups and to freshly prepared dishes and meals. Ultra-processed foods are operationally distinguishable from processed foods by the presence of food substances of no culinary use (varieties of sugars such as fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, 'fruit juice concentrates', invert sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose and lactose; modified starches; modified oils such as hydrogenated or interesterified oils; and protein sources such as hydrolysed proteins, soya protein isolate, gluten, casein, whey protein and 'mechanically separated meat') or of additives with cosmetic functions (flavours, flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents) in their list of ingredients. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_classification It may well take some similar techniques, processes and chemicals to produce a modern cigarette as it does a chicken nugget. > Chicken McNuggets® > Ingredients: White Boneless Chicken, Water, Vegetable Oil (canola Oil, Corn Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil), Enriched Flour (bleached Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Bleached Wheat Flour, Yellow Corn Flour, Vegetable Starch (modified Corn, Wheat, Rice, Pea, Corn), Salt, Leavening (baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Calcium Lactate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Spices, Yeast Extract, Lemon Juice Solids, Dextrose, Natural Flavors.
- tekla 2y ago
  What is in the chicken nugget that is harmful to you? I read the entire ingredient list and all shit I have in my kitchen cabinet for everyday cooking.
  - Symbiote 2y ago
    I didn't claim it was harmful, I said it met the definition of "ultra processed". There's more to the ingredients than most people realize. > Canola oil is made at a processing facility by slightly heating and then crushing the seed. Almost all commercial canola oil is then extracted using hexane solvent, which is recovered at the end of processing. Finally, the canola oil is refined using water precipitation and organic acid to remove gums and free fatty acids, filtering to remove color, and deodorizing using steam distillation. [Wikipedia] Other processes are hydrogenation, flour bleaching and modification of starch (starches treated with chemicals and/or enzymes), and whatever makes "lemon juice solids" and "yeast extract". I certainly don't have those leavening agents or dextrose in my kitchen, or all the oils, or the modified starches.
    - tekla 2y ago
      The canola oil stuff is uninteresting. Canola oil is one of the oldest cooking oils known, the process just makes it taste less shit. Hexane is inert and easy to remove during processing and has basically 0 toxicity (just don't drink a bottle of it), water precipitation and organic acid and steam distillation is whatever, sounds fancy for things that are harmless. > hydrogenation, flour bleaching and modification of starch All harmless > lemon juice solids You evaporate lemon juice and whatever is left are the solids. > yeast extract Its yeast innards > leavening agents or dextrose If you bake bread, you have them.

by Gormo 2y ago

Symbiote 2y ago

Here's a commonly accepted definition: > Industrially manufactured food products made up of several ingredients (formulations) including sugar, oils, fats and salt (generally in combination and in higher amounts than in processed foods) and food substances of no or rare culinary use (such as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, modified starches and protein isolates). Group 1 foods are absent or represent a small proportion of the ingredients in the formulation. Processes enabling the manufacture of ultra-processed foods include industrial techniques such as extrusion, moulding and pre-frying; application of additives including those whose function is to make the final product palatable or hyperpalatable such as flavours, colourants, non-sugar sweeteners and emulsifiers; and sophisticated packaging, usually with synthetic materials. Processes and ingredients here are designed to create highly profitable (low-cost ingredients, long shelf-life, emphatic branding), convenient (ready-to-(h)eat or to drink), tasteful alternatives to all other Nova food groups and to freshly prepared dishes and meals. Ultra-processed foods are operationally distinguishable from processed foods by the presence of food substances of no culinary use (varieties of sugars such as fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, 'fruit juice concentrates', invert sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose and lactose; modified starches; modified oils such as hydrogenated or interesterified oils; and protein sources such as hydrolysed proteins, soya protein isolate, gluten, casein, whey protein and 'mechanically separated meat') or of additives with cosmetic functions (flavours, flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents) in their list of ingredients. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_classification It may well take some similar techniques, processes and chemicals to produce a modern cigarette as it does a chicken nugget. > Chicken McNuggets® > Ingredients: White Boneless Chicken, Water, Vegetable Oil (canola Oil, Corn Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil), Enriched Flour (bleached Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Bleached Wheat Flour, Yellow Corn Flour, Vegetable Starch (modified Corn, Wheat, Rice, Pea, Corn), Salt, Leavening (baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Calcium Lactate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Spices, Yeast Extract, Lemon Juice Solids, Dextrose, Natural Flavors.

tekla 2y ago
What is in the chicken nugget that is harmful to you? I read the entire ingredient list and all shit I have in my kitchen cabinet for everyday cooking.
- Symbiote 2y ago
  I didn't claim it was harmful, I said it met the definition of "ultra processed". There's more to the ingredients than most people realize. > Canola oil is made at a processing facility by slightly heating and then crushing the seed. Almost all commercial canola oil is then extracted using hexane solvent, which is recovered at the end of processing. Finally, the canola oil is refined using water precipitation and organic acid to remove gums and free fatty acids, filtering to remove color, and deodorizing using steam distillation. [Wikipedia] Other processes are hydrogenation, flour bleaching and modification of starch (starches treated with chemicals and/or enzymes), and whatever makes "lemon juice solids" and "yeast extract". I certainly don't have those leavening agents or dextrose in my kitchen, or all the oils, or the modified starches.
  - tekla 2y ago
    The canola oil stuff is uninteresting. Canola oil is one of the oldest cooking oils known, the process just makes it taste less shit. Hexane is inert and easy to remove during processing and has basically 0 toxicity (just don't drink a bottle of it), water precipitation and organic acid and steam distillation is whatever, sounds fancy for things that are harmless. > hydrogenation, flour bleaching and modification of starch All harmless > lemon juice solids You evaporate lemon juice and whatever is left are the solids. > yeast extract Its yeast innards > leavening agents or dextrose If you bake bread, you have them.