Do you want to avoid ultra-processed foods? Cook more often, choose whole foods | CBC Radio

Sandra Elia is intimately aware of the prevalence of ultra-processed foods in the Canadian diet.

As a recovering food addict, Elia struggled for years to control her intake of ultra-processed fried foods, heavy in refined sugar and flour.

She is not alone; Canadians achieve nearly half of their caloric intake comes from ultra-processed foods, according to a 2017 study commissioned by Heart & Stroke.

Elia now advocates for everyone to eat a diet that contains fresh, whole foods, rather than ultra-processed and “factory-made” foods.

“We know for a fact, as our Western diet comes around the world, it’s taking all our chronic diseases with it,” said Elia, who is also board president and director of patient advocacy and education. Obesity Matters, a non-profit organization.

Experts agree that ultra-processed foods not only harm physical health, but are also correlated with an increase in negative mental health, including depression and anxiety.

What are ultra-processed foods?

According to food engineer Hamed Vatankhah, humans have been processing food since we moved from hunting and gathering as our primary means of food acquisition.

“We learned that we can process food, we can [store] the food [longer]we can make changes to our food to make it more palatable,” explained Vatankhah, CEO of Montreal-based food engineering company Scipertech.

According to the New food classification system developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil in 2009 freshly baked bread, freshly made cheese, salted nuts and bacon are considered processed, because they contain added salts, sugars and fats to preserve them or to make them more pleasant.

Nova classifies foods based on how much they’ve been processed, from unprocessed or natural foods to ultra-processed.

Pickling and fermentation are also common methods of food processing.

Meanwhile, ultra-processed foods are radical overhauls of natural, whole ingredients, according to Jean-Claude Moubarac, associate professor in the department of nutrition at the University of Montreal.

Moubarac wrote the Heart & Stroke study, which looked at how people in Canada consume ultra-processed foods, as well as how it affects Canadian diets, while offering policy suggestions aimed at reducing people’s reliance on them.

“Ultra-processed foods are formulations of industrial substances and additives that are carefully selected to create a consumer product,” he said in an interview with Dr. Brian Goldman, host of The dose.

“They have a lot of sugar, salt and fat, but they also have colors, flavors, different kinds of additives, to make them attractive.”

Under the Nova system, most fast foods are included in the ultra-processed category, as are instant macaroni and cheese, flavored omelets, carbonated soft drinks and chocolate bars.

Even certain brands of breakfast cereals, fruit juices and yogurt count as ultra-processed.

Researchers like Moubarac argue that modern food manufacturers heavily process ingredients to incentivize increased food consumption not just to ensure food stays fresh longer.

“That’s why they put so much sugar and salt, and that’s why they use flavor and colors,” he said.

“Nature makes food for the purpose of life, and I believe [the food] The industry does ultra-processing for the sole purpose of selling and making a profit.”

Elia says she knows how tempting ultra-processed foods can be.

“Broccoli, salmon, asparagus I can only eat so much, but with the ultra-processed stuff, it just makes me want more, very similar to alcoholism.”

Like any other food, ultra-processed foods do contain nutrients, vitamins and minerals. However, the problem for experts is that they are often added after processing and would not otherwise exist in these foods.

“You might find minerals and vitamins added to a sugar-laden breakfast cereal,” Moubarac said.

Correlation with negative physical and mental health

Studies show that there are correlations between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and health problems such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes i heart disease.

“In general, I would say that the more ultra-processed foods are consumed, the less healthy people are,” Moubarac said.

There is also a correlation between ultra-processed foods and mental health problems like depression i anxiety.

Still, he acknowledges that the relationship requires more research, as the cause is unclear, meaning whether depression causes people to overeat foods or whether the foods themselves are causing the depression.

Elia says she relied on ultra-processed foods to cope with her feelings of trauma, especially during times of mental health difficulty.

“What I didn’t realize at the time was [that] these ultra-processed foods make my mental health tank,” she said. “I feel really depressed and anxious about these foods.”

“We know that when people are depressed, they tend to eat a lot of sugar-rich products, because it has an effect on their mood,” Moubarac said.

“What is clear is that people lose control of these products from time to time,” he said.

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

Is it possible to completely avoid ultra-processed foods?

For his part, Vatankhah acknowledges that ultra-processing “deteriorates some of the nutritional components of food,” but warns against the belief that all food is unhealthy when processed.

“Processed food ensures public health,” Vatankhah said, pointing to milk pasteurization, which removes harmful microorganisms from raw and organic milk.

In addition, he says it has allowed him to consume a wider variety of foods, including fruits and vegetables from other parts of the world that would not be available in environments like Canada.

Moubarac acknowledges that it can be difficult for some people to avoid ultra-processed foods and that rising costs can make it difficult to access certain fresh ingredients, such as meat.

They also tend to be more convenient to shop for when people are on the move.

However, she suggests that people cook for themselves as often as they can, while focusing on recipes that combine meat and vegetables with grains and legumes.

“If you like chocolate, I would recommend buying real chocolate, not a KitKat bar, which is a candy bar,” she said.

Moubarac also disagrees that ultra-processed foods are cheaper than natural, whole foods, countering that the food industry’s prices are the cost of time and energy consumers save by buying ultra-processed foods.

“We can honestly say 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 seasonal vegetables, you’ll find it’s much cheaper to buy all these foods and combine them into one meal than to buy the ultra-processed version.”

Elia encourages people who consume ultra-processed foods to consider the benefits of whole, fresh foods.

“I put a lot of the blame on the food industry. It’s a billion-dollar industry that’s trying to get most of your wallet.”