Can we discuss "ultra processed food?"

Are you sure those foods you mentioned are ultra processed and not just processed? I think there are three categories: unprocessed, processed and ultra processed. But I’m no expert.

I would call American cheese ultra processed because it’s pretty far removed from traditional cheese. I would not call most yogurt, sour cream, or cheese ultra processed, though it can be (like gogurt or something). But if you can make it at home, I’m probably not going to call it ultra processed.

There are some brands of sour cream, yogurt, etc. that have a lot of extra ingredients. Think fat free sour cream or heavily sweetened “yogurt.” I don’t know what source you’re using but I wonder if they mean those types of products rather than whole dairy products like real sour cream.

To me, ultra processed foods are things like Twinkies or Spam. Things where the nutritional value of ingredients has been largely stripped away or offset by sugar and hydrogenated fats. I wouldn’t count fermented or cultured foods as “processed” in the way that they mean.

Some sites will have sour cream and yogurt listed as "processed" and some as "ultra-processed". And they are processed because of additives and preservatives. If you find a sour cream without preservatives, that is better for you than one that has added preservatives. And then of course, plain yogurt is better for you than ones with added "fruits".

It's also how different food looks from nature.
For example: corn - a whole ear of corn cooked fresh is unprocessed, a tin or corn is processed, a packet of corn chips is ultra processed.
Or pork - buying a piece of pork and pan frying it yourself, vs bacon (processed) vs a hot dog (ultra processed)
As food looks less and less like its 'natural' state and has more and more ingredients added then it becomes ultra processed.


It no longer looks like a potato PLUS it will now have ingredients added, I looked up the ingredients in a random brand of flavored potato chips:
Potatoes, Sunflower Oil, Sugar, Glucose Powder, Salt, Dextrin, Natural Flavours, Chicken Powder, Maltodextrin, Corn Starch, Chicken Fat, Honey Powder, Onion Powder, Natural Colours (Caramel, Paprika Extract, Turmeric), Soy, Sauce Powder, Garlic Powder, Spice (White Pepper).
All that extra stuff makes it "ultra processed"
If you made your own potato chips at home by cutting up fresh potatoes and frying them in plain oil, then they'd only be considered 'processed' instead of ultra processed.

Milk is already considered processed because it is already treated/pasteurized/homogenized by the time we get it (unless we have our own cow/sheep). So when even more ingredients are added to turn it into another product (cheese, ice-cream), then it mostly becomes ultra processed.

The main principles for health is to eat foods that look the closest to the way it does in nature, and without all the added ingredients.  Yes, fresh corn still contains sugar and carbs, but eating it fresh is better than tinned, and tinned, is still better than corn chips. 
The idea is also that natural foods are more filling and have a higher 'satiety' than their ultra processed versions. The ultra processed versions have lower satiety therefore not only do people eat more of that food in one sitting, but they are digested faster and people will be looking to eat again more quickly afterwards.

Have you read Ultra Processed People? Long read, but interesting to see the.science and economics behind food. It so focusses on what makes it addictive.

I can't answer your question but it seems like so many items have at least one item that's ultra processed. Texture and shelf-life are created with ultra processing.

Rather than avoid ice cream, I want to make my own. 😂

There are different kinds of sour cream. Some has carrageenan, gelatin and all sorts of other crap added to it. I always buy the "natural" sour cream. It is just milk, cream and enzymes.
Yogurt is another one that can have all sorts of crap in it. I just started making my own because it is so hard to find a plain and delicious yogurt without a bunch of unnecessary additives.

I didn’t know my food sensitivity had a name for it. I completely avoid all that stuff like it’s toxic. And I live with roommates who get a lot of ultra processed foods and drinks.

I’m sitting at the kitchen table and there’s some hostess cupcakes and chips ahoy cookies within arms reach.
I was looking at them earlier wishing they didn’t have all that “stuff” in them because I was hungry.
I grabbed the bag of gummy worms that has no artificial anything.

I avoid dairy too because the reaction is congesting and inflammatory. Goat dairy seems to be fine though.

My choice to cut out many ultra processed foods came from someone fear mongering. “That’s so bad for you” But I had no idea there was more ingredients than just food and I got angry but I felt like I was tricked and started spreading the word, even on message boards which I shortly learned, didn’t do anything 😋

And then I had a reaction after eating some candy and that’s when I cut it all out. Free from the “stuff” but it doesn’t feel very free.

I caved once years ago and had a Reeses peanut butter cup when taking my daughter and her friend TOTing and it didn’t taste the same at all like I remembered.

And then last week when I was over at my cousins, his girlfriend was talking about how she’s been trying all these dairy free milks but that they have gums in them. And I’m like I gotta draw the exception line somewhere or I’ll run out of things to eat.

I agree though, the closer you are eating the food to its source the better.

At the grocery store where I work I was bagging for this customer and their shirt said Plant Based on it and she was buying all plant based foods and I’m like wow you really walk the walk and talk the talk. And she brought up the “at the source” thing, and we had a great conversation. She’s inspiring.

This is the book I was going to recommend.  It lays everything that you ever wanted to know about UPF out. 

That brings to mind even simple "ingredients" purchased at stores, such as flour, can already be quite processed. 

I mean think of the difference between an einkorn flour and a bleached all purpose flour.  We think of a certain kind of food when we say "processed", but really processing can be as simple as making several changes to the food you're starting with. 

Dried fruits sold in stores can possible go through several steps or processes to get them from the initial fruit to something shelf-stable.  (Including additional ingredients in some cases.) So while they may still look fairly similar to the original fruit, they've been processed quite a bit.  Just not as much if they get turned into a frozen pie. 

But both flour & dried fruit may be items I'd buy to make something from scratch to avoid buying an "ultra-processed" food. 

The book Food Rules by Michael Pollan is very helpful in helping determine if something is actually food or ultra-processed. An example of one of his rules is to not eat cereal that changes the color of the milk. I reread it every now and then when I feel like I need to do better.

And that’s why I don’t go too far down that rabbit hole or I would starve 😏

I think part of the definition is that they’re designed to be convenient, eat from the bag, super tasty (think addictive) and highly profitable for the company. But I agree, potatoes, oil and salt is not UP to me even if they’re not very healthy for other reasons.