New buzz word to learn: UPF

Food and nutrition are being looked at in an entirely new way. It is not so much a case of what’s in your food, but what has been done to it. Here’s a really simple example: In the ‘50s Crisco used to be vegetable lard. Now it is processed vegetable lard, partially hydrogenated (to increase mouth feel and flavor boost). Crisco is now like a tub of excitotoxin or, using a word you may recognize, MSG. Partially hydrogenated anything is an excitotoxin.

If you buy anything that has a list of ingredients that a normal home-cook would be unable to use, then that product is Ultra Processed Food (UPF). Processed foods may be made of products that were deconstructed, enhanced and then put back together like barley malt found in bread, granola with nuts, pasta sauces, most cheese sold in the USA, skim milk, deli meats, whipping cream… the list is almost endless. And processed can be mechanical. Whole grain cereal or potato that is super heated, then put though shaping (Pringles, most breakfast cereals) has all its fiber structure destroyed, making the whole grain nothing more than dust. And UPFs have sweeteners, salts and partially-hydrogenated oils added back in to make them taste good or have better mouth feel like lecithin.

In many high-income countries, like the USA, UPFs make up about half of our calorie intake. And that is worrying because scientific research (principally done in national health countries where such records are quantifiable for the whole nation) shows that UPFs contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart problems, some cancers, depression and stroke. And our giant food companies are pushing hard to expand global UPF consumption for profit growth.

And there’s a kicker: UPFs are usually cheaper than non-processed foods. They store better, extend shelf-life and, as any supermarket will tell you, they are packaged to sell and advertising is blasted from every TV to make you buy them. But because they are cheaper, the lowest income people in the USA consume as much as 85% of their food in UPF form.

Listen up: If you see someone who’s obese, remember that the cost of food, the lack of school training about what’s in food, the power of advertising to push these foods as cheaply as possible — these obese people are not greedy or overeating, they are being fed UPFs, economically induced to buy UPFs and many UPF ingredients are addictive and very flavorful.

There’s a food classification based on the needs for human health called the NOVA System. I’ll leave you with what you need to know: There are four categories:

1. The least processed foods — foods like apples, fresh vegetables and eggs and steak, and actual grains, and non-frozen fish.

2. Processed culinary ingredients, like oil, butter, spices, vinegar, salt and sugar.

3. Processed foods like freshly made cheese, unbleached flour, canned fish, oatmeal and a whole host of foods made up of foods from group 1. and modified only with food from group 2., like some smoked salmon, salami, hams and popcorn (always read the ingredients).

4. Ultra Processed Foods. Here the foods from group 1. are no longer intact. UPFs are made up of disassembled, broken, ingredients from group 1. and 2., re-assembled with chemical additives and processing. The purpose here is not only to make the food last longer but taste better, and because of additives, provide the same calorie value, but for far more profit for the food processor.

You are, remember, what you eat.

Peter Riva is a former resident of Amenia Union. He now resides in New Mexico.