Ultraprocessed foods documentary

[everydayupsanddowns]

Just advertised on BBC Breakfast

Thursday night 9pm ”What are we feeding our kids” on BBC1 I think.

Dr Chris Van Tulleken eats an almost entirely ‘ultraprocessed’ diet for a month and sees what it does to his body.

‘Ultraprocessed’ sounds easy to avoid, but is basically any food with more than one ingredient that you would not find in a domestic kitchen - so essentially includes all supermarket breads, preprepared sauces, wraps, most breakfast cereals, many things packaged and promoted as ‘natural’ or healthy and pretty much the vast majority of other supermarket products too!

Sounds interesting and horrifying in equal measure.

 

[Robin]

Just advertised on BBC Breakfast

Thursday night 9pm ”What are we feeding our kids” on BBC1 I think.

Dr Chris Van Tulleken eats an almost entirely ‘ultraprocessed’ diet for a month and sees what it does to his body.

‘Ultraprocessed’ sounds easy to avoid, but is basically any food with more than one ingredient that you would not find in a domestic kitchen - so essentially includes all supermarket breads, preprepared sauces, wraps, most breakfast cereals, many things packaged and promoted as ‘natural’ or healthy and pretty much the vast majority of other supermarket products too!

Sounds interesting and horrifying in equal measure.

I read an article about this somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) and the typical day's diet didn’t actually sound too horrific, apart from the sugary snacks between meals, it was basically a bowl of cereal, but not one of the awful sweet ones, a 'healthy' sandwich at lunch, but made with processed white bread, and a supermarket ready meal in the evening. (What was missing was fresh fruit and veg, obviously). What a lot of people would eat, I'd imagine, and not think they’re doing badly.

 

[Spozkins]

I always thought if you couldn't pick it directly from the ground (or kill it I suppose, but I'm a veggy) it probably wasn't very good for you.

I try to make my own sauces and the like but it's very time consuming. I'd be interested to see what the response is anyway.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I read an article about this somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) and the typical day's diet didn’t actually sound too horrific, apart from the sugary snacks between meals, it was basically a bowl of cereal, but not one of the awful sweet ones, a 'healthy' sandwich at lunch, but made with processed white bread, and a supermarket ready meal in the evening. (What was missing was fresh fruit and veg, obviously). What a lot of people would eat, I'd imagine, and not think they’re doing badly.

Yes in the interview it was suggested that for a large proportion of people this is just their regular diet (can’t remember the number, but maybe 3/5ths of food consumed?), and quite how difficult it is to avoid ultraprocessed foods

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I think there is a call from some quarters to require an ‘ultraprocessed’ label on packaging - but I’d imagine the food industry would be pretty resistant to that!

 

[adrian1der]

Looking forward to this one. If you haven't seen "Supersize Me" it is worth a look. Morgan Spurlock attempts to exist for a month eating only food from McDonalds with interest consequences 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

Something which had not occurred to me is that things like bread and cereals are fortified with folic acid so by cutting those out I have low folate even though I eat lots of veg which have natural folic acid. So have now to take folic acid but am wondering if I need to take anything else with some of the vitamins and minerals that would be in cereals.

 

[trophywench]

Pete read somewhere that it gave Chris erectile dysfunction - told me yesterday when the advert for it was on - and he immediately went EEK!!and was horrified, if it's doing this to me what's it doing to children's brains and bodies - not surprised he did frankly if that's the case - yes we're both looking forward to watching it!

 

[Deleted member 21371]

There is an article on what the food classification is on the BBC website.

What is ultra-processed food and what does it mean for my health?

Ultra-processed foods have been linked to more than 30 different health problems, including heart disease, cancer and anxiety.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Eddy Edson]

From an article, a lot of the documentary refers to Kevin Hall's landmark study from 2019: https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(19)30248-7.pdf

In a controlled feeding experiment, people consumed ~500 kcal/day more when eating as much as they liked of ultraprocessed food, versus whole foods. Macronutrient etc matched; equally palatable; bggest diff was that people ate a lot faster, when eating ultraproccessed.

Here he presents the study at a conference:

I bet 20c more informative than a TV doco.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

From an article, a lot of the documentary refers to Kevin Hall's landmark study from 2019: https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(19)30248-7.pdf

In a controlled feeding experiment, people consumed ~500 kcal/day more when eating as much as they liked of ultraprocessed food, versus whole foods. Macronutrient etc matched; equally palatable; bggest diff was that people ate a lot faster, when eating ultraproccessed.

Here he presents the study at a conference:

I bet 20c more informative than a TV doco.

I read the preview on the upcoming BBC program. It's sold mainly as a "like for like" replacement of his usual diet. The extra 500 calories a day don't seem to get a great mention. Just the weight gain from eating the "same as normal"

 

[Deleted member 21371]

It would be interesting to see who thinks their food isn't "ultra processed".

We all know turkey twizzlers are.

But just checking tins and bottles, even my tinned tomatoes, cheap end, (In all my curries, chillies, most things I cook in a pan)
Tomatoes (60%), Tomato Juice, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid).
Apparently that's an "ultra processed food, because of the acidity regulator.

High end chipotle sauce, all natural,
Tomato (42%), Brown Sugar, Onion, Bramley Apple, White Grape Vinegar, Sea Salt, Smoked Paprika, Chipotle Pepper (1%)
Now, it's all natural, but there are natural sweeteners, colourings, and preservatives, so is that ultra processed?

 

[pm133]

I think there is a call from some quarters to require an ‘ultraprocessed’ label on packaging - but I’d imagine the food industry would be pretty resistant to that!

If virtually everything is going to be categorised as "ultraprocessed" then it's not going to be a helpful label either.

 

[pm133]

It would be interesting to see who thinks their food isn't "ultra processed".

We all know turkey twizzlers are.

But just checking tins and bottles, even my tinned tomatoes, cheap end, (In all my curries, chillies, most things I cook in a pan)
Tomatoes (60%), Tomato Juice, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid).
Apparently that's an "ultra processed food, because of the acidity regulator.

High end chipotle sauce, all natural,
Tomato (42%), Brown Sugar, Onion, Bramley Apple, White Grape Vinegar, Sea Salt, Smoked Paprika, Chipotle Pepper (1%)
Now, it's all natural, but there are natural sweeteners, colourings, and preservatives, so is that ultra processed?

That would be my problem with this definition of "ultra-processed" - it's too tight to be of any practical value. There's clearly a difference between having things like chicken nuggets and having things like tinned tomatoes.

 

[Inka]

Pete read somewhere that it gave Chris erectile dysfunction - told me yesterday when the advert for it was on - and he immediately went EEK!!and was horrified, if it's doing this to me what's it doing to children's brains and bodies - not surprised he did frankly if that's the case - yes we're both looking forward to watching it!

On one of the plant-based documentaries (can’t remember which) they, er, used an attachment to measure response during the night, and the difference between the plant-based meal and the normal meaty meal was surprisingly big.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

If virtually everything is going to be categorised as "ultraprocessed" then it's not going to be a helpful label either.

Yes it's a shame isn't it. Would be really useful to have a way of separating the nasties from the 'reasonable' additives and extras.

But if you give the food industry an inch it'll take a yard, and I am pretty convinved that whatever stipulation you put on (eg a maximum number or percentage of additives) they'd find a way of making some hideous concoction that qualified for a 'clean' label but was actually even worse for you than the old stuff!

 

[Leadinglights]

Yes it's a shame isn't it. Would be really useful to have a way of separating the nasties from the 'reasonable' additives and extras.

But if you give the food industry an inch it'll take a yard, and I am pretty convinved that whatever stipulation you put on (eg a maximum number or percentage of additives) they'd find a way of making some hideous concoction that qualified for a 'clean' label but was actually even worse for you than the old stuff!

Everybody assumes E numbers are all bad but some natural things are given an E number. So even that is no real guide.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

On one of the plant-based documentaries (can’t remember which) they, er, used an attachment to measure response during the night, and the difference between the plant-based meal and the normal meaty meal was surprisingly big.

That's another one.
I have some plant based "bacon" in my freezer.
That is so far into the "ultra processed" zone!

 

[Inka]

That's another one.
I have some plant based "bacon" in my freezer.
That is so far into the "ultra processed" zone!

Most of those meat substitutes are foul.I should have given it it’s full name but couldn’t be arsed to write it out It was a documentary about Whole Food Plant Based diets. No bacon, porcine or otherwise. If I could remember the documentary, it would help. I’m not keen on googling for obvious reasons. I think it was low fat WFPB so mostly veg, fruit, pulses, grains, etc.

Edited to say that I found it. It was The Game Changers. Details here of the specific topic:



.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Most of those meat substitutes are foul.I should have given it it’s full name but couldn’t be arsed to write it out It was a documentary about Whole Food Plant Based diets. No bacon, porcine or otherwise. If I could remember the documentary, it would help. I’m not keen on googling for obvious reasons. I think it was low fat WFPB so mostly veg, fruit, pulses, grains, etc.

Edited to say that I found it. It was The Game Changers. Details here of the specific topic:



.

Dinner tonight.
Lamb chops, roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, green beans, leek, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing, gravy, mushrooms.
3/9 are ultra processed.
The gravy, the Yorkshire puddings, and the stuffing. (Although the stuffing was full of fresh sage and chives from the garden!)
But I have no intention of going back to meat juice and cornflower for gravy, or mixing my own batter for Yorkshire puddings, unless it's toad in the hole.