As the Mail reported yesterday, a major new study found the most urgent threat to health is ultra-processed food: ready meals, sugary drinks, cereals, cakes, biscuits, pizza, hot dog sausages, energy bars, powdered slimming products, factory bread and pies, sweets, dehydrated soups, chicken nuggets . . . In other words, any food that requires industrial manufacturing unavailable in the average kitchen.

Who would have guessed that industrial foods that humans never before ate in history could cause health problems?

Ultraprosessoidulla ruoalla oli tutkijoiden mukaan yhteys ylipainoon, korkeaan verenpaineeseen ja syöpiin.

Erikoistutkija Heli Kuusipalo Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitokselta uskoo, että tutkimustulokset ovat hyvin pitkälle paikkansa pitäviä.

Oikeanlainen hyvä ravinto edistää terveyttä ja hyvinvointia sekä auttaa jaksamaan arjessa.

Kaupassa kannattaa Kuusipalon mukaan kiinnittää huomiota tuotteiden myyntipäällyksiin.
– Tuotteista on hyvä katsoa suolan, kovan rasvan ja lisätyn sokerin määrää.

Ravintokuidun määrä on Kuusipalon mukaan neljäs tärkeä asia mihin on hyvä kiinnittää huomiota. Mikäli kuidun määrä on alhainen, tuotetta on pitkälle prosessoitu.

Kaupassa kannattaa Kuusipalon mukaan kiinnittää huomiota tuotteiden myyntipäällyksiin.
– Tuotteista on hyvä katsoa suolan, kovan rasvan ja lisätyn sokerin määrää.

Laatikaisen mielestä luotettavassa uutisessa pitää olla viittaus tutkimukseen, mieluiten tutkimuskoosteeseen, ja kenties kommentti suomalaisilta ravitsemuksen asiantuntijoilta.

Kaikki sokeroitu ei ole ultraprosessoitua, mutta ultraprosessoidussa on sokeria yleisemmin kuin vähemmän prosessoidussa. Kovaa rasvaa ultraprosessoidussa ruuassa tosiaan saattaa olla osittain kovetetun kasvirasvan muodossa. Jotenkin vaan en osannut ajatella Kuusipalon viittaavan kovalla rasvalla muuhun kuin eläinperäiseen rasvaan.

The fourth NOVA group is of ultra-processed food and drink products. These are industrial formulations typically with five or more and usually many ingredients. Such ingredients often include those also used in processed foods, such as sugar, oils, fats, salt, anti-oxidants, stabilisers, and preservatives. Ingredients only found in ultra-processed products include substances not commonly used in culinary preparations, and additives whose purpose is to imitate sensory qualities of group 1 foods or of culinary preparations of these foods, or to disguise undesirable sensory qualities of the final product. Group 1 foods are a small proportion of or are even absent from ultra-processed products. Substances only found in ultra-processed products include some directly extracted from foods, such as casein, lactose, whey, and gluten, and some derived from further processing of food constituents, such as hydrogenated or interesterified oils, hydrolysed proteins, soy protein isolate, maltodextrin, invert sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Classes of additive only found in ultra-processed products include dyes and other colours, colour stabilisers, flavours, flavour enhancers, non-sugar sweeteners, and processing aids such as carbonating, firming, bulking and anti-bulking, de-foaming, anti-caking and glazing agents, emulsifiers, sequestrants and humectants.

Several industrial processes with no domestic equivalents are used in the manufacture of ultra-processed products, such as extrusion and moulding, and pre-processing for frying.

The main purpose of industrial ultra-processing is to create products that are ready to eat, to drink or to heat, liable to replace both unprocessed or minimally processed foods that are naturally ready to consume, such as fruits and nuts, milk and water, and freshly prepared drinks, dishes, desserts and meals. Common attributes of ultra-processed products are hyper-palatability, sophisticated and attractive packaging, multi-media and other aggressive marketing to children and adolescents, health claims, high profitability, and branding and ownership by transnational corporations.

Examples of typical ultra-processed products are: carbonated drinks; sweet or savoury packaged snacks; ice-cream, chocolate, candies (confectionery); mass-produced packaged breads and buns; margarines and spreads; cookies (biscuits), pastries, cakes, and cake mixes; breakfast ‘cereals’, ‘cereal’ and ‘energy’ bars; ‘energy’ drinks; milk drinks, ‘fruit’ yoghurts and ‘fruit’ drinks; cocoa drinks; meat and chicken extracts and ‘instant’ sauces; infant formulas, follow-on milks, other baby products; ‘health’ and ‘slimming’ products such as powdered or ‘fortified’ meal and dish substitutes; and many ready to heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes; poultry and fish ‘nuggets’ and ‘sticks’, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, and powdered and packaged ‘instant’ soups, noodles and desserts.

When products made solely of group 1 or group 3 foods also contain cosmetic or sensory intensifying additives, such as plain yoghurt with added artificial sweeteners, and breads with added emulsifiers, they are classified here in group 4. When alcoholic drinks are identified as foods, those produced by fermentation of group 1 foods followed by distillation of the resulting alcohol, such as whisky, gin, rum, vodka, are classified in group 4.