Biscuits, processed meat, and even seemingly innocuous items such orange juice come with a warning tag. Photo / Getty Images
Biscuits, processed meat, and even seemingly innocuous items such orange juice come with a warning tag. Photo / Getty Images
We’ve all heard by now that UPFs could be harmful for us. Here our experts tell us which ones to strike off the shopping list for good.
Are you reading this over the breakfast table, a bacon sarnie in one hand, a cold glass of juice in the other? Or perhaps you’re perusing it in the evening, waiting for the microwave to ping and release your favourite ready meal? Either way, the following news is likely to leave a bad taste in your mouth.
It seems we must rethink our relationships with our most beloved breakfast food and our guilty-secret suppers too. So what other common ingredients would the experts cancel from our diets?
“Orange Juice is going in my room 101 of pet hates, because people think it’s healthy when actually, has the same concentration of sugar as a glass of Coke,” says Giles Yeo, Cambridge University molecular geneticist and author of Why Calories Don’t Count.
“Sure, it also contains Vitamin C, but people glug down orange juice, they encourage their kids to have it. You wouldn’t do that with Coke. And it’s not like it’s a superior form of sugar either, it’s the same old sucrose.”
"Orange Juice has the same concentration of sugar as a glass of Coke," says Yeo. Photo / 123rf
The fix
“The issue is that when you juice an orange, you’re stripping out the fibre. And without the fibre, our bodies absorb that sugar very, very quickly and easily,” says Yeo.
Savour the whole fruit. “So eat an orange, instead. Sure you’re getting the same amount of sugar, but because you’re eating it with fibre, two things happen. First, your body takes longer to get the sugar out of the orange. So that sugar is released over a longer period of time.
“Second, because we can’t digest fibre, it has the effect of making you feel a little bit fuller. So if you eat an orange, instead of drinking its juice, you’re going to feel fuller for longer.”
2. Frozen pizza
If you fancy a pizza treat, stick with freshly made varieties. Shop-bought frozen pizza is often packed with vegetable oil, says James Goodwin, director of science at the Brain Health Network, former chief scientific officer of Age UK and author of Supercharge your Brain.
“Most of us are familiar with the risks associated with the hidden sugar, salt and preservatives in ready meals. But a little-known but common ingredient in processed foods like frozen pizzas and microwave dinners is omega-6 fatty acid.”
Omega-6 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fat naturally occurring in nuts, seeds and vegetable oils. Sunflower, corn, and soybean oils are all high in omega-6.
Their consumption has dramatically increased over recent years, says Goodwin, due to the wide use of refined vegetable oils and their addition to processed and fast foods. Back in the 1930s, they constituted 1% of our calories. Now, it’s nearly 10%.
The problem? “Omega-6 is inflammatory to the brain,” he says. “And it’s not just the brain that suffers. Chronic inflammation is one of the leading drivers of the most serious modern diseases, including heart disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and many types of cancer.”
Shop-bought frozen pizza is often packed with vegetable oil - a source of Omega-6 fatty acids. Photo / 123rf
The fix
Make sure you’re reading the labels before you go to the till. “Read the label to find out which vegetable oils have been used (for example, butter, coconut oil and olive oil are all relatively low in omega-6) and avoid oils rich in omega-6,” says Goodwin.
3. Diet soft drinks
“I ask my patients to completely cut out artificial sweeteners, which don’t actually help with weight control,” says Dr Saira Hameed, NHS consultant in endocrinology and diabetes at Imperial College and author of The Full Diet Cookbook.
When we taste something sweet, she explains, the body predicts that sugar is on the way: “In anticipation of the expected rise in blood glucose levels, the body pre-emptively produces insulin, which aside from being the body’s fat storage hormone is also the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. This means that the sweet taste of the artificial sweetener will cause insulin levels to rise even though there is no sugar is on the way.”
These nasties are commonly found in diet soft drinks where, says Hameed: “the synthetic sweet taste perpetuates cravings for more sweet foods and conditions us to expect food to taste unnaturally sweet, preventing us from appreciating the inherent sweetness of natural foods like tomatoes and strawberries.”
Artificial sweeteners are also bad for the bacteria that live in the gut, she says: “causing our gut bacteria to disrupt our blood sugar levels and to yield more calories from the food we eat, driving weight gain.”
The synthetic sweet taste of diet soft drinks perpetuates cravings for more sweet foods, says Hameed. Photo / Getty Images
The fix
Water is the best choice, but what if that gets a bit boring? “Liven up water by adding lemon, lime or some cucumber,” says Hameed. “Once you come off artificial sweeteners, your taste buds will recalibrate and this will taste so much better.”
4. Ice cream and biscuits
“Foods containing high fructose syrups should be eliminated from your diet,” says Rhian Stephenson, nutritionist and founder of wellness brand Artah, who points out that over consumption of high fructose corn syrup, for example, has been linked to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and even heart disease.
While British supermarkets aren’t awash with it to the same degree as their US counterparts: “It’s still bad. A lot of processed and packaged foods contain them, including some top ice cream brands, popular sweets and biscuits.”
The catch? On labels, it goes by a number of different names: “glucose fructose syrup, isoglucose, maize syrup, partially inverted sugar syrup, candy sugar syrup, crystalline fructose and more,” says Stephenson.
Foods like ice cream and biscuits containing high fructose syrups "should be eliminated from your diet,” says nutritionist Rhian Stephenson. Photo / 123rf
The fix
Have a go at making your own. “When it comes to cookies and baked goods, homemade will always be better,” says Stephenson, “especially when we can swap in healthier ingredients like whole grain flours and more natural forms of sugar.”
5. Processed and red meat
Processed meat – any that’s been preserved or changed including, whisper it, bacon – is associated with a higher risk of bowel cancer. According to Cancer Research UK, just 25g a day (that’s one measly rasher) raises your risk. Eating large quantities of red meat has been associated with it too.
When it comes to bacon, the blame is laid with chemicals added in the processing: nitrates and nitrites. But equally, says Mellor: “People who eat more processed and red meat aren’t typically the ones who eat lots of vegetables.”
When it comes to bacon, the blame is laid with chemicals added in the processing: nitrates and nitrites. Photo / 123rf
The fix
Dial up the veg, dial down the red and processed meat. Or, as Mellor puts it: “a little more L and T, and a little less B in your sandwich. If there’s more fibre in your gut, although you might have these compounds from red and processed meat in there too, there’s more bulk, so less chance of the potentially carcinogenic compounds hitting the gut wall.”
6. White bread
Is your bacon sandwiched between two pieces of sliced white? So much the worse. Around 70% of the bread we eat is white yet, says nutritional therapist Lucy Miller: “it is a highly refined carbohydrate that contains little nutritional value, is the largest contributor to salt intake in the UK and is also a food that is high on the glycaemic index – a measure of how quickly and dramatically foods increase blood glucose levels.”
White bread is a "highly refined carbohydrate that contains little nutritional value", says nutritional therapist Lucy Miller. Photo / 123rf
The fix
Choose an alternative, but with so many loaves out there which one?“Choose 100% wholegrain bread, the darker the better,” suggests Miller. “This will increase the amount of fibre, which will reduce the glycaemic level and promote the health of the gut microbiome. Wholegrains are also full of nutrients such as B vitamins, iron, copper, zinc, magnesium and omega 3.”
7. Low-fat flavoured yogurt
“Sweetenedlow-fat yogurts are high in added sugars, to replace the flavour lost from removing most of the fat,” says Dr Emily Leeming, senior nutrition scientist at ZOE, the nutrition research programme based at King’s College London.
“There’s a threshold for harm from added sugars starting at around 65 grams a day, so the higher you go above this the more this is linked to poor health. Remember though, it’s what you eat over time that matters, not a single day of eating.”
Low-fat yoghurts are high in added sugars. Photo / 123rf
The fix
Switch to full fat natural or Greek yogurt. “Try choosing a full-fat natural Greek yoghurt, as the fat actually helps you to feel fuller for longer. Or try kefir yoghurt – it’s full of probiotics to feed your gut bacteria,” adds Dr Leeming.
8. Booze
Regularly drinking above the recommended units of alcohol can be detrimental to your health. It has many links to serious chronic conditions, including cancer. “Alcohol is linked to a whole range of cancers: stomach, liver, throat, oesophageal...” lists Mellor. “We know that alcohol disrupts our cells, leading to changes which can result in carcinogenesis.”
Alcohol is linked to several serious chronic conditions, including cancer. Photo / Getty Images
The fix
“Very modest drinking – a small glass of wine, or a small beer, with a meal, a few times a week, might be good thing,” says Mellor, not because of alcohol’s innate properties but because: “relaxing and socialising with a meal helps us enjoy life. Enjoying life can be helpful for our health.”
Surprised to see this one on the list? “Coconut oil gets a lot of press and a reputation for being good for you, but that isn’t based on science,” says Leeming. “Actually, it contains about a third more saturated fat than butter and reducing your saturated fat intake is important for lowering your risk of heart disease.”
The time is long overdue to relieve coconut oil of a health halo that scientific evidence shows it doesn't deserve. Photo / 123rf
The fix
Make extra virgin olive oil your go-to cooking oil. “I use coconut oil for its flavour in curries, but otherwise it’s better for your heart to swap saturated fat out for polyunsaturated fats found in most other plant oils,” says Leeming. When cooking: “stick with extra virgin olive oil which is rich in polyphenols and healthy fats.”
10. Other ultra-processed foods
The latest study, led by Imperial College London, examined the diets of 200,000 people and tracked their health for a decade. It uncovered an association between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and an increased risk of both developing and dying from cancer.
From instant noodles, sweets and biscuits to mass-produced bread, the National Food Survey reports that purchase of ready meals and convenience foods has increased five-fold over the last 40 years.
Ultra-processed foods are, in essence “all foods made from ingredients that have been through multiple processes”, says Duane Mellor, registered dietitian and senior lecturer at Aston Medical School. The bad news is that these foods make up half of the typical British diet.
It is not entirely straightforward, though: “People who tend to have higher intakes of ultra-processed foods, also tend to have lower incomes,” says Mellor. While the study did try to control for these, it may be that other lifestyle factors contribute to the association.
The UK's National Food Survey reported that purchase of ready meals and convenience foods has increased five-fold over the last 40 years. Photo / 123rf
The fix
More research is required to locate the root of the association between UPFs and cancer. “Is it what’s in the food, or what’s lacking from it?” asks Mellor.He thinks it is “probably a little bit of both.”
Eating UPFs often means consuming a lot of saturated fat, salt, and free sugars at the expense of consuming fruit, vegetables, fibre and essential nutrients. So if you craving the occasional ready meal, balance it out with meals high in vegetables, pulses, nuts, seeds, fruit, and wholegrains.
