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Most of the things on sale at “Whole Foods” are ultra-processed these days. Anything that requires effort to make gluten free or vegan for example. Like impossible burger. Extreme ultra-processed. Or gluten free bread.

Please don’t tell me impossible burger patties are like cigarettes.

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Right, it's not that all ultraprocessed foods are bad, it's that most bad foods are ultraprocessed.

Agreed. Which makes the statement “ultraprocessed foods should be treated more like cigarettes” seem wrong.

I guess “bad foods should be treated more like cigarettes” is too obvious.


nobody has a good definition of ultra-processed food

People keep saying that in this comment section like it’s a reason to stop talking about why some foods are addictive and lead to bad health outcomes. Who benefits when we do that?

Perhaps more obviously, a multi-vitamin is considered "ultra processed" under Nova. A fiber supplement is considered "ultra processed". Lab grade creatine is "ultra processed".

As a creatine user I thought of this, but I don't recall seeing creatine as an ingredient in most foods. I still prefer to get my protein via meat, eggs, or other basic foods rather than in the form of a highly engineered shake, not least for cost reasons.

They certainly have such offerings, but I'm perplexed at how you get to 'most of the things on sale'. The most processed things I get from there on a regular basis are bread, cookies, or alcoholic drinks. It's very rare that I find myself looking at the label of anything I can purchase there wondering how it was made.

As I said - anything surprisingly gluten free or surprisingly vegan is going to be UPF.

Sometimes I wonder if the gluten free trend is a ploy by food processing companies to whitewash expensive proprietary processed foods as “whole”.


I think you mean "anything UPF-GF or UPF-vegan is UPF". The Typical vegan and GF foods you find in a supermarket are just the same as others foods:

   - non processed: fruits, grains, roots, leafs, pulses
   - processed: pasta, breads, nuts milks, sorbet, fries
   - UPF: most drinks, most sweeties, most prepared food
Some exceptions exists but don't change the general trend:

   - vegan burger: some are UPF, some are just smashed fallafels
   - GF bread: rice or rye bread suits most gluten intolerants. Those suffering allergies have limited options obviously (which include abstaining from bread) but their medical condition isn't a "gluten free trend".
   - meats cuts: some contains sodium nitrite and other nasty additives while others are just raw animals parts.

OK but that's a very small proportion of what the typical supermarket has on sale.



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