Want to avoid ultra-processed foods? Cook more often, choose whole foods

Sandra Elia is intimately aware of how prevalent ul‐ tra-processed foods are in the Canadian diet.

As a recovering food ad‐ dict, Elia struggled for years to control her intake of ultraprocessed fried foods, heavy in refined sugar and flour.

She's not alone; Canadi‐ ans get nearly half of their caloric intake from ultraprocessed foods, according to a 2017 study commis‐ sioned by Heart & Stroke.

Elia now advocates that everyone consume a diet that contains whole, fresh foods, rather than ultraprocessed, "factory-made foods."

"We know for a fact, as our Western diet ripples across the globe, it brings with it all our chronic ill‐ nesses," said Elia, who is also board chair and director of patient advocacy and educa‐ tion with Obesity Matters, a non-profit.

Experts agree that ultraprocessed foods not only harm physical health - they're also correlated with in‐ creased negative mental health, including depression and anxiety.

What are ultraprocessed foods?

Humans have processed food ever since we moved past hunting and gathering as our primary means of food acquisition, according to food engineer Hamed Vatankhah.

"We learned that we can process the food, we can [store] the food [longer], we can make changes in our food to make them more palatable," explained Vatankhah, CEO of Montrealbased food engineering com‐ pany Scipertech.

According to the Nova food classification system developed by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil in 2009 - freshly baked bread, freshly made cheese, salted nuts and bacon are all considered processed, be‐ cause they contain added salts, sugars and fats to pre‐ serve them or to make them more enjoyable.

Nova classifies food based on how much it's been processed, ranging from un‐ processed or natural foods to ultra-processed.

Pickling and fermentation are also common food pro‐ cessing methods.

Ultra-processed foods, meanwhile, are radical revi‐ sions of natural, whole ingre‐ dients, according to JeanClaude Moubarac, an asso‐ ciate professor at the Univer‐ sity of Montreal's depart‐ ment of nutrition.

Moubarac wrote the Heart & Stroke study, which looked at how people in Canada consume ultraprocessed foods, as well as how it affects Canadian diets, while also offering policy sug‐ gestions aimed at reducing people's reliance on them.

"Ultra-processed foods are formulations of industrial substance and additives that are carefully selected to cre‐ ate a product of consump‐ tion," he said in an interview with Dr. Brian Goldman, host of The Dose.

"They have a lot of sugar, salt and fat, but also they have colours, flavours, differ‐ ent types of additives, to make them appealing."

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Under the Nova system, included in the ultraprocessed category are most fast foods, as well as instant macaroni and cheese, flavoured tortilla chips, car‐ bonated soft drinks and chocolate bars.

Even certain brands of breakfast cereal, fruit juices and yogurt count as ultraprocessed.

Researchers like Moubarac argue that mod‐ ern food manufacturers heavily process ingredients to incentivize increased food consumption - not just to en‐ sure food stays fresh longer.

"This is why they put so much sugar and salt, and this is why they use flavour and colours," he said.

"Nature makes food for the purpose of life, and I think [the food] industry makes ultra-processing for the sole purpose of selling, and making profit."

Elia says she knows how appealing ultra-processed food can be.

"Broccoli, salmon, as‐ paragus - I can only eat so much of that, but with the ul‐ tra-processed stuff, it only makes me want to have more, very akin to alco‐ holism."

Like any other food, ultraprocessed foods do contain nutrients, vitamins and min‐ erals. However, the issue for experts is that those are of‐ ten added after processing, and wouldn't otherwise exist in those foods.

"You might find added minerals and vitamins to a breakfast cereal that is loaded with sugar," Moubarac said.

Correlation with nega‐ tive physical, mental health

Studies show there are corre‐ lations between the con‐ sumption of ultra-processed foods and health issues like obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"Overall, I would say, the more ultra-processed food is consumed, the less healthy people are," said Moubarac.

There's also a correlation between ultra-processed foods and mental health is‐ sues like depression and anx‐ iety.

Still, he acknowledges that the relationship does require more research, as the causa‐ tion remains unclear - that is, whether depression causes people to over-consume the foods, or if the foods them‐ selves are causing the de‐ pression.

Elia says she relied on ul‐ tra-processed foods to deal with her feelings of trauma, especially during moments of mental health difficulty.

"What I didn't realize at the time was [that] these ul‐ tra-processed foods make my mental health tank," she said. "I feel very depressed and anxious on those foods."

"We know that when peo‐ ple are depressed, they tend to eat a lot of products that are high in sugar, because it does have an effect on their mood," said Moubarac.

"What is clear is that peo‐ ple … lose control over these products now and then," he said.

He said people at home should be mindful of the type of food they eat when they feel stressed or anxious.

Is it possible to com‐ pletely avoid ultraprocessed foods?

For his part, Vatankhah ac‐ knowledges that ultra-pro‐ cessing "deteriorates some of the nutritional components of foods," but cautions against the belief that all foods are unhealthy when processed.

"Processed foods guaran‐ tee public health," Vatankhah said, pointing to milk pas‐ teurization, which eliminates otherwise harmful microor‐ ganisms from raw, organic milk.

Additionally, he says it's made it possible to consume a wider variety of foods, in‐ cluding fruits and vegetables from other parts of the world that would be unavailable in environments like Canada.

Moubarac acknowledges that it can be difficult for some people to avoid ultraprocessed foods, and that rising costs can make it diffi‐ cult to afford certain fresh in‐ gredients, like meat.

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They're also often more convenient to purchase when people are on the go.

Nonetheless, he suggests that people cook for them‐ selves as often as they can, while focusing on recipes that combine meat and veg‐ etables with grains and legumes.

"If you like chocolate,

Iwould recommend to buy real chocolate, not a KitKat bar, which is candy," he said.

Moubarac also disagrees that ultra-processed foods are cheaper than natural, whole foods, countering that the food industry prices in the cost of the time and en‐ ergy consumers save by buy‐ ing ultra-processed foods.

"We can say honestly that meat is expensive, but there are some foods that are much less expensive, such as rice, beans and vegetables," he said. "If you eat vegetables that are from the season, you'll find that it is much cheaper to buy all those foods and combine them into a meal, than to buy the ultraprocessed version."

Elia encourages people who consume ultraprocessed foods to consider the benefits of whole, fresh foods.

"I hold much of the blame with the food industry. It's a billion-dollar industry trying to get the greatest share of your wallet."