Post #4042113

2026-07-22 21:27 UTC

Once again seeing “ultra-processed foods” in headlines. The evidence sure seems to support them being detrimental to health, but I still have yet to find a “How to ID ultra-processed foods” guide that is anything but vague and hand-wavy.

Replies (1)

@Lemniscate@infosec.exchange 2026-07-23 17:32

@troublewithwords@wandering.shop Not that it’s a quick help with reviewing grocery shopping, but I found the book Ultra-Processed People helped me to better understand the shape of the issue, as well as why that shape is on the vague side. To drastically oversimplify, there’s been mounting evidence that *something* about ultra-processed food is causing a problem, but they aren’t yet clear what aspect(s) are doing so. The book goes over what the various aspects are, recounts details of numerous interesting studies and more. It talks about the NOVA food classification system, which is what many sources look to for classifying ultra processed vs processed vs not foods. But I think even the creator said somewhere that it wasn’t created as a tool for consumers to look at their kitchen and easily figure out what was what necessarily. (Not that he’s against that, it just wasn’t the purpose of the system originally.)

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