2022 LC Thread—New Year, New Thread

Look I haven’t read that study, but it sure sounds like a plethora of garbage level studies purporting to show association on diet and health outcomes.

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My burgers are good for me because they’re plant based, and I’m sure peas, mung beans, faba beans, brown rice, cocoa butter, coconut oil, expeller-pressed canola oil and methylcellulose naturally taste like ground beef without any ultra-processing, right?

Ben & Jerry both seem to genuinely be decent people, but they sold the company over 20 years ago and have only minimal involvement with it. If you want to credit the company for its ongoing good deeds, you have to thank Unilever for honoring their purchase agreement with the founders.

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I don’t believe this study, I eat processed treats every day and my brain good work does.

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There seem to be people who do fine on an ultra-processed diet while others have a strong negative response. :man_shrugging:

Processed foods are not just microwave meals and ready meals.

A processed food is any food that has been altered in some way during preparation.

Food processing can be as basic as:

  • freezing
  • canning
  • baking
  • drying

Not all processed foods are unhealthy but some processed foods may contain high levels of salt, sugar and fat.

What counts as processed food?

Examples of common processed foods include:

  • breakfast cereals
  • cheese
  • tinned vegetables
  • bread
  • savoury snacks, such as crisps, sausage rolls, pies and pasties
  • meat products, such as bacon, sausage, ham, salami and paté
  • microwave meals or ready meals
  • cakes and biscuits
  • drinks, such as milk or soft drinks

Not all processed food is a bad choice. Some foods need processing to make them safe, such as milk, which needs to be pasteurised to remove harmful bacteria.

Other foods need processing to make them suitable for use, such as pressing seeds to make oil.

What makes some processed foods less healthy?

Ingredients such as salt, sugar and fat are sometimes added to processed foods to make their flavour more appealing and to extend their shelf life, or in some cases to contribute to the food’s structure, such as salt in bread or sugar in cakes.

Buying processed foods can lead to people eating more than the recommended amounts of sugar, salt and fat as they may not be aware of how much has been added to the food they are buying and eating.

These foods can also be higher in calories due to the high amounts of added sugar or fat in them

How can I eat processed foods as part of a healthy diet?

You have no control over the amount of salt, sugar and fat in processed food but you do have control over what you to choose to buy.

Reading nutrition labels can help you choose between processed products and keep a check on fat, salt and sugar content.

In UK#1, most pre-packed foods have the nutrition information on the front, back or side of the packaging.

If the processed food you want to buy has a nutrition label that uses colour-coding, you will often find a mixture of red, amber and green.

When you’re choosing between similar products, try to go for more greens and ambers, and fewer reds, if you want to make a healthier choice.

There are guidelines to tell you if a food is high or low in fat, saturated fat, salt or sugar.

The guidelines, which are for adults, are:

Total fat

High: more than 17.5g of fat per 100g
Low: 3g of fat or less per 100g

Saturated fat

High: more than 5g of saturated fat per 100g
Low: 1.5g of saturated fat or less per 100g

Sugars

High: more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g
Low: 5g of total sugars or less per 100g

Salt

High: more than 1.5g of salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium)
Low: 0.3g of salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium)

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I guess it’s time for me to inform you I’ve only been :heart: ing your posts out of pity.

I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but that’s a long list and makes that plant-based burger kinda sus. Methylcellulose (thickener and emulsifier) seals it. It fits the description of ultra-processed, but idk if it’s actually bad.

Sliced apple :green_apple: = processed food

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I was kidding. Vegan burgers that aren’t just chickpea or black bean patties are about as ultra-processed as you get but marketed as healthier alternatives to red meat.

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The recent studies are specifically looking at ultra-processed foods.

Sure. From that wiki article, the NOVA (kinda controversial but whatever) classification system is

  1. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods
  2. Processed culinary ingredients
  3. Processed foods
  4. Ultra processed food and drink products

The claims about cognitive effects concern category 4, so your apple is fine.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

That’s the best heuristic you’re going to get.

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Yeah, it’s wild to me that the Impossible Burger has about as much saturated saturated fat as the real deal. Kind of undercuts part of the value of eating a vegetarian meal.

The value is not murdering a cow, imo, not so much the “healthiness” of it.

That’s part of it, but for me a big part of the draw of eating vegetarian is the health benefit of avoiding saturated fats and processed meat.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1555681573156028418?s=20&t=1FEQFLIVmrNJDqG2YUSxqQ

BREAKING: poor people are less pissed off if they’re not completely bone-crushingly poor

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Also environmental benefits.

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You can’t sell fake meat with ethical arguments or environmental appeals. People don’t really care about that stuff. But they do care about not being a fatass who might drop dead if they don’t start eating better. Selfish motivations change behavior. So if you don’t have the health argument, and you don’t have the flavor argument (“you don’t even notice the difference” is at best conceding no benefit, and is always a lie anyway), then you’re not going to sell much fake meat because you don’t have anything to offer that people actually want. There isn’t even a price argument. Fake meat is hella expensive.

The people trying to sell this stuff don’t seem to understand that arguments persuasive to people who are already vegetarians are not very persuasive to anybody else. Omnivores don’t want fake meat. It’s a market that doesn’t really exist, and based on recent efforts, can’t be created.

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slight disagree, I’m an omnivore that opts towards plant solutions when offered, am not even closed to a vegetarian though. Gladly opt for veggie patties or impossible patties, they leave me feeling less bloated and run through me a lot better.

I think meat eaters are not easily pursuaded that it isn’t the healthiest or most environmentally friendly habit though. The moral arguments are whatever. I find those silly and I imagine most hardcore meat eaters would too.