Sun, Aug-27-23, 23:43
|
 |
|
|
Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
|
|
Wave of ill-health coming from ultra-processed food, experts warn
Quote:
Wave of ill-health coming from ultra-processed food, experts warn
Britain faces a “tidal wave” of heart disease due to a dependence on ultra-processed food which is causing harm similar to smoking, research shows.
Two landmark studies have revealed that ultra-processed food significantly increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Even “healthy” processed options, such as protein bars, breakfast cereals, low-fat yoghurts and supermarket sliced bread were linked to worse heart health.
Campaigners said the findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Amsterdam, must act as a “wake-up call” for the government. Experts are calling for ultra-processed food to be treated like tobacco and say regulations must be in place to restrict advertising and stop companies “selling foods that are killing us”.
More than half of the typical British daily diet is made up of ultra-processed food, more than any other country in Europe. The products, made using a series of industrial processes, include breakfast cereals, ready meals, frozen pizzas, sweets and biscuits.
A study presented at the conference pooled data from 325,000 people, who were divided into four groups depending on how much of their daily food intake was ultra-processed.
Those with the highest consumption were 24 per cent more likely to develop heart disease, or suffer a stroke or heart attack. Every 10 per cent increase in the proportion of ultra-processed food in a person’s diet was associated with a 6 per cent increase in heart disease risk, according to the study by the Fourth Military Medical University in China.
In a separate study, researchers at the University of Sydney followed 10,000 middle-aged women in Australia for 15 years. Those who ate the most ultra-processed food were 39 per cent more likely to develop high blood pressure, significantly increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
This was the case even after scientists adjusted for the impact of salt, sugar, fat and other nutrients, suggesting that the physical act of processing the food is harmful.
Anushriya Pant, the author of the study, said: “Ultra-processed foods tend to be lower in fibre, high in salt and sugars, and all these factors are known to be anti-cardioprotective. The more you process food, the fewer nutrients you retain.”
The findings add to a growing body of evidence linking ultra-processed food to heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, depression and diabetes.
Henry Dimbleby, the former government food adviser, said: “This is one of the first studies to suggest the harm caused by ultra-processed food may be more than just because of the high fat, sugar and salt content of the products.
“Given that ultra-processed food represents 55 per of our diet that should be a wake-up call. Food companies should not be selling people foods that are actively killing them.”
Dimbleby said the nation’s poor diet was storing up health problems in younger generations and contributing to a record 2.6 million people being off work with long-term sickness.
He said: “If we do nothing, a tidal wave of harm is going to hit the NHS. People are out of work as a result of diet-related illness. We will end up with a sick and impoverished country.”
Dr Chris van Tulleken, a scientist at University College London who has written a book on the topic, said: “Importantly the studies showing these harmful effects make adjustments for fat, salt and sugar. This indicates that, whilst the salt, fat and sugar content of ultra-processed foods is one way they harm the body, the ultra-processing itself is the main problem.
“There is now significant evidence that these products inflame the gut, disrupt appetite regulation, alter hormone levels, and cause myriad other effects which likely increase the risk of cardiovascular and other disease much in the same way that smoking does.”
He said the government must “urgently” issue guidelines advising the public to reduce their consumption of ultra-processed food, following the example of Brazil, Canada and France.
Van Tulleken said: “We need warning labels on packets. We need to stop all marketing of ultra-processed foods, especially the use of cartoon characters to market these products to children.”
Two thirds of British adults are obese or overweight. In recent months the government has delayed a series of anti-obesity policies, including a ban on junk food advertising before 9pm.
Katharine Jenner, the director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said regulations should ban food companies from marketing ultra-processed foods as “healthy”.
She said: “If you’re trying to buy healthy food, health claims on packaging and in adverts tell you nothing about how ‘healthy’ the product really is. They are a marketing tactic to distract you from reading the label more thoroughly.
“Obesity costs the NHS around £6.5 billion a year and is the second biggest cause of cancer, yet the UK government have consistently delayed measures that would take the pressure off, such as restricting advertising and multibuys on unhealthy food. We must redesign the food system to put health first.”
Analysis
Browse the aisles of any supermarket and you will find many items that would be impossible to recreate from scratch in a home kitchen (Eleanor Hayward writes).
These foods — including chocolate breakfast cereal, brightly-coloured sweets or crisps that bear no resemblance to a potato — are the products of an industrialised food system. Since 2010, they have been referred to as ultra-processed foods under a classification system devised by Brazilian scientists trying to explain the obesity crisis.
As well as being low in nutrients and fibre, the food is subjected to a series of sophisticated industrial processes such as splitting whole foods into oils, fats and sugar, then recombining them.
They are also usually packed with preservatives and additives, bought ready-to-eat and are heavily marketed, sometimes as “healthy” options.
These products — which some argue should be referred to as “edible substances”, not food — increasingly dominate the food supply in the UK. They have been blamed for fuelling obesity, with research showing people consume more calories if food is ultra-processed.
The British diet is among the worst in the world: typically 55 per cent of daily calories come from ultra-processed food, only slightly behind the USA where the figure is 57 per cent.
Studies have linked high consumption of these foods to heart disease, diabetes, depression, dementia and cancer. Increasingly, evidence indicates that ultra-processed food is not simply harmful because it tends to be fatty, salty and sugary, but that something inherent in the industrial processing is at fault.
Processing degrades the physical structure of foods, while additives such as sweeteners and emulsifiers damage healthy gut bacteria and cause inflammation, which may in turn increase the risk of heart disease.
Ultra-processed foods to avoid
• Mass-produced sliced bread
• Low fat or sweetened yoghurts
• Breakfast cereals
• Doughnuts and biscuits
• Protein bars and cereal bars
• Chicken nuggets and processed meat products
• Instant soups and noodles
• Fizzy drinks, including diet versions
• Margarines and spreads
|
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-warn-sr2gnlhrn |
|
We already have a growing problem in the US with people who can't think or get out of bed in the morning, and that's endangering us all, not just those close to them. And not just Long COVID, because I think poor nutrition, however manifested, is behind so much of it that my feelings get overwhelming. And I have to watch the news to calm me down.
Linear Mode
