Dr Chris Van Tulleken, an infectious diseases doctor at University College London, BBC science presenter and bestselling author, has distilled the essence of ultra-processed food into a single sentence: "If it's wrapped in plastic and it contains at least one ingredient that you don't typically find in a domestic kitchen, then it's ultra-processed food."
Among the usual suspects of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are:
packaged bread
breakfast cereals and granola
flavoured yoghurt
chocolate, biscuits and crisps
energy and granola bars
fizzy drinks
ready meals
And if the ingredients list on your food packaging includes any of the following, it's often a telltale sign that you're dealing with UPF:
emulsifiers
stabilisers
dyes
flavour enhancers
lecithin
xantham or guar gum
Are all processed foods bad?
Certainly not. Humans have been processing food for millennia.
Bread, butter, cheese, and yoghurt are all examples of processed foods. Tinned food is another classic example.
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