It’s Time to End the Tyranny of Ultra-Processed Food
Industrially processed pizzas, cereals, and convenience foods are responsible for a host of diseases. Policymakers and doctors need to lead the food fight.
Industrially processed pizzas, cereals, and convenience foods are responsible for a host of diseases. Policymakers and doctors need to lead the food fight.
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Sure. How much do the alternatives cost?
It's all well and good to cry for getting rid of XYZ, but if there's no good alternative (or in this case, cheap), it's just not going to happen.
Also without even reading any of the related research, I know they didn't take things like poverty and marginalisation that many of the people eating "ultra processed" (the new meaningless buzz-phrase) foods deal with, and the impact those have on the body and mind (I guarantee their impact overshadows that of the food by multiple factors, never mind that multiple millions of people also struggle to access healthcare), as well as why those circumstances might leave people very little choice but to eat this kind of food, not to mention the government policies (and lobbying profits) that (quite intentionally) created this whole mess in the first place (from labour laws to education to economy to food and even media regulations).
I'm so sick of this bullshit where every few months there's a new media campaign to blame those at the very bottom for all of the ills of the world (many of which we will be the first victims of and most impacted by) instead of on the actions and profiteering of those at the very top. I know it's a feature of the system not a bug, but I wish more people were aware of just how they're being manipulated to maintain the status quo by those exploiting us all.
I support and agree with criticisms about food deserts and how often lower income people who have the system stacked against them are most often blamed for the poor outcomes of bad nutrition.
There is an article someone copy and pasted from another news source above though, that shows this study was an experimental design in which test subjects weren't asked to self report their food intake, they were provided prepared meals from the research team and observed for two weeks.
None of the conclusions drawn were about sociological questions, but merely about the impact on a few health metrics for the test subjects such as caloric intake and the resulting weight loss/gain. In reality, a study like this can be in major support of advocates who want to demonstrate that food deserts and the negative health outcomes from only having ultra processed food will lead to greater health disparities cross-population. I don't think this study was trying to finger wag at consumers.
I didn't say the research was trying to finger wag consumers.
I did say they didn't take in to account significant parameters (and the excerpt of research/article that provides the details of the experiment supports this), so their research is lacking at best.
And even if their intentions were to support the kind of agenda you mentioned (and they might have been, I don't know), it doesn't matter, their research is still (and was always going to) be used by those in power to create a new scapegoat to victim blame and punch down at instead of addressing the actual causes of poor health as it relates to poor diet - capitalism and those who benefit from it.
Either way - research about the harms of poor diet that ignores both the circumstances and environment that leads to the poor diet, and the impacts said circumstances and environment have on health before you even look at the food aspect of it, isn't good research, no matter what you intend to do with it.
You can't research in to a problem that stems pretty much exclusively from how our society is designed and functions without looking at the sociological aspects of it. (E: well, clearly you can, but it's an exercise in futility at best)
Yes!!!!!! I find it hard to generalize ANY scientific study to a population. All of the factors cannot be considered in a lab setting. And a lot of the time, the context of capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism is not mentioned. The opposite of the diet talk is the conversation about food access. Detroit and so many cities like it are a food dessert. There will always be organizations and farmers who can change that, but you won’t see a Kroger open in Detroit. Eating food is always better than not eating food. I believe it doesn’t matter what you eat.
Sometimes the best first step is making a healthier alternative at home. Few food items that are low cost, pre-packaged, ready to eat, will be healthy.
You could skip the frozen or restaurant pizza and make your own with low sodium sauce, use cheese lightly, add healthy toppings.
For cereal instead of the typical sugary stuff opt for oatmeal with whole fruit or nuts. Even Cream of Wheat is better than sugar flake cereals.
It's not that you have to get rid of all that you like but the goal is to find alternatives with healthier ingredients.
It will take effort on an individuals part to eat more healthy but it doesn't have to be more expensive. I like to make dinners that last a few days. I make a quinoa and bean chili that I really enjoy. It takes me about an hour an lasts for three days. It has quinoa, kidney beans, diced or crushed tomatoes (low sodium), onion, vegetable or chicken broth (low or no sodium), corn and a few spices.
The drive to do this has to be there. Healthy eating takes some time and effort but, at least from my experiences, it's worth trying. Once you know dishes you like and how to make them the easier it all gets.
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