Ultra-Processed Food: What Matters

The headlines have been consistent for a couple of years now and the shopping is more confusing than it was. Ultra-processed food is bad. But. Wholemeal bread is ultra-processed. So is the protein bar in your gym bag, and so, on most classifications, is a supermarket hummus.

We need to eliminate the confusion.

"Ultra-processed" describes how a food was made — industrial processing, ingredients you wouldn't have in a kitchen. It doesn't describe what's in it nutritionally, which is why it puts a Pot Noodle and a loaf of Hovis wholemeal in the same box.

In the trials where people are fed these diets and their intake is measured, the foods that drive overeating share four properties: high energy density, low protein per calorie, low fibre, and soft texture that lets you eat fast. Together those defeat the fullness signals that would normally stop you. People eat several hundred more calories a day on that kind of food without noticing, and without reporting feeling any fuller. The original testing of this was done on rats. When they were fed just sugar, or just fat, they stopped when they were full. When fed a mix of the two their satiety signals were broken and they literally ate themselves to death.

So use three checks instead of the label. Protein per 100 grams — above 10 is good. Fibre per 100 grams — aim for >3g, and 30 grams a day total is the target. And ask how long it would take to eat the packet. If the answer is under two minutes, it's too easy to binge out.

Three swaps that pass all three and take no effort. Standard yoghurt to Skyr or Fage, which roughly doubles the protein. A bag of crisps to a bag of nuts, which are equally energy-dense but take ten times as long to eat. And a ready meal to the same ready meal with a tin of beans (fibre) or a chicken breast (protein) added to it.

Run those checks on your trolley this week and the wholemeal bread passes, the yoghurt passes, and the ready meal with 8 grams of protein in it doesn't.

We don't need blanket bans, just add protein and fibre, and be cautious of the things you can eat a lot of very quickly.

Our Nutrition and Lifestyle Programme is run by Dr Amy George — a CrossFit coach and an HSN nutrition and lifestyle coach — and it starts with what you eat now, not what you should. Free, no-obligation 15-minute chat with Jeremy or Beth at crossfitchiltern.com.