Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have more in common with cigarettes than with fruit or vegetables, and require far tighter regulation, according to a new report.
UPFs and cigarettes are engineered to encourage addiction and consumption, researchers from three US universities said, pointing to the parallels in widespread health harms that link both.
UPFs, which are widely available worldwide, are food products that have been industrially manufactured, often using emulsifiers or artificial colouring and flavours. The category includes soft drinks and packaged snacks such as crisps and biscuits.
There are similarities in the production processes of UPFs and cigarettes, and in manufacturers’ efforts to optimise the “doses” of products and how quickly they act on reward pathways in the body, according to the paper from researchers at Harvard, the University of Michigan and Duke University.
One of the authors, Prof Ashley Gearhardt of the University of Michigan, a clinical psychologist specialising in addiction, said her patients made the same links: “They would say, ‘I feel addicted to this stuff, I crave it – I used to smoke cigarettes [and] now I have the same habit but it’s with soda and doughnuts. I know it’s killing me; I want to quit, but I can’t.’”
Concoctions involving naturally occurring carbonated spring water were/are definitely a thing. That’s actually where the commercial idea came from in the first place.
Have been around as long as sugar, which is longer than industrialisation.
Not sure about spam, but isn’t that just canned ham? People definitely do home canning. And, it sounds like Spam is considered a central part of traditional Hawaiian food at this point. Why do you hate Native Hawaiians??? /s
And none of them were really what we would call “soda”. Heck the closest to that would be modern root beer. But considering the lack of other “medicinal” herbs, they definitely don’t count.
A lot of candies, not all of them. Certain candies have emulsifiers and other ingredients that didn’t exist historically, so you couldn’t get that texture or such. And a lot of modern chewing gum is plastic, so I think I don’t have to explain why that’s not possible in the kitchen.
I actually read a book all about Spam once that they had in my school library, because I thought it was funny they had such a book. The name purportedly comes from the parts used: shoulder of pork and ham. It was therefore considered fancier than just ham.
But to make it, you’re not just canning the meats. You also need those preservatives for one thing - they’re part of the taste. I’m not sure celery powder would work as a substitute like it does for ham and bacon though.