Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report.
UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both.
UPFs, which are widely available worldwide, are food products that have been industrially manufactured, often using emulsifiers or artificial colouring and flavours. The category includes soft drinks and packaged snacks such as crisps and biscuits.
There are similarities in the production processes of UPFs and cigarettes, and in manufacturers’ efforts to optimise the “doses” of products and how quickly they act on reward pathways in the body, according to the paper from researchers at Harvard, the University of Michigan and Duke University.
One of the authors, Prof Ashley Gearhardt of the University of Michigan, a clinical psychologist specialising in addiction, said her patients made the same links: “They would say, ‘I feel addicted to this stuff, I crave it – I used to smoke cigarettes [and] now I have the same habit but it’s with soda and doughnuts. I know it’s killing me; I want to quit, but I can’t.’”
How the fuck do you expect to get kids to eat salad when the salad dressing is locked behind a counter with the cigarettes?
The problem is that “ultra-processed foods” is too broad to be meaningful. Also the fact that, you know, some amount of personal choice is essential to a free society.
Why do they need to eat salad? Or do you think that’s the only healthy food?
It was an example of how fucking stupid this idea is.
If you want to follow a Mediterranean diet, yes, salad is a very healthy food that you should eat weekly
Spoken like someone who doesn’t understand neuroscience.
Please, explain to me how Cheerios are addictive and need to be banned.
When I was an italian kid, I have never had problems eating salads with no ultra-processed dressing.
I’m sure that’s because of choices that your parents made and nothing to do with living in an area with high population density and easy access to fresh food.
Mmm olive oil
it is not ultra-processed, it is just processed.
Eh. That’s the thing with UPF, it doesn’t really have a definition. There’s a whole lot of transformation that’s happened to make olive oil - quite possibly more than whatever American-style dressing.
Why would you even buy a readymade dressing? Salad dressing is dead simple to make.
Sure if you’re just making Italian or Russian dressing. If you want thousand island or caesar, you need more than a basic pantry. Also the time and energy/motivation, which a lot of people don’t have.
That’s why I have my own olive trees, chicken farm, lemon orchard, anchovy fishery, and a dairy farm in Parma
I don’t know why anyone would buy readymade olive oil, eggs, lemon juice, anchovies, or Parmesan, they’re dead simple to make
The first two dressings you listed are much healthier than the latter two. If I’m eating a salad, I don’t need to put a caloric dressing on it.
No, you don’t need to. But it makes it a lot more palatable.
Only to people who eat way too much sugar.