Ultra processed foods are harmful: BBC Panorama - LUPUS UK
Ultra processed foods are harmful: BBC Panorama
Just to clarify, ultra processed just means that multiple processes have been carried out on the food, it doesn't make the food bad by definition. Cooking is a process. Olives undergo a chemical treatment to make them edible. Ultra processed can be anything from baked beans to pepperoni pizza.
nutrition.org.uk/news/2021/...
Kinda. One definition is foods with one or more ingredient a person wouldn't ordinarily have in your cupboard e.g. chemicals, additives, preservatives. According to the guy that wrote the book anyway, and who was interviewed on Zoe. I find this slightly easier to understand. I'd classify Olives etc as processed. Much like foods that are made up but don't have lots of additives in them.
Processed foods are foods that are processed ready for us to eat. UPFs are foods with added chemicals that most people wouldn't recognise, and are usually in plastic packaging.
The evidence is now clearly showing that all people that eat UPFs on a regular basis will be negatively affected by it. Just like someone can smoke a packet of cigarettes a day and die of old age, where someone who has only smoked for just a few months, develops lung cancer. Different bodies will react to different toxins in different ways. Lots of people will have the make up to have lupus, but will never develop it. There are reasons why we did. When I was 1st diagnosed I was told, food played no part in lupus, but stress is a big trigger. Now those same specialists are saying a leaky gut could play a part in SLE.
When I think about some of food I grew up on, angel delight, crispy pancakes, potatoe waffles it makes me feel sick by what it could have been doing to my growing body. I did have plenty of home cooked foods. But if I've got a body that more likely to be effected by UPF, I was feeding myself poison on a regular basis, and not giving it time to heal inbetween. Like most people do.
Now I'm more aware of food labels. Some baked beans are just processed, but some are UPFs. You have to look at each label, it's a nightmare out there.
I'm so angry that we have government, after government that put their financial interests before the needs of the people that put them in power.
This is why I dislike over the top headlines, it leads people to be excessively worried by what they eat. Given that you know that stress triggered your lupus (it triggered mine too), I don't think it's helpful for you to get into this much of a state about food. We have quite strict rules here in the UK compared with a lot of countries and I honestly don't think Angel Delight had anything to do with my or your lupus, calling it poison is not a healthy way to think about food.
Hi sarahalice,
Thanks for posting.
I agree. Food and its additives as you say all play a part in lupus causation but the mechanisms still require better explanations. Eg the “leaky gut” in SLE?
Your last two paragraphs are spot on!✅👏👍
Corporate power and greed seem to dictate what food products enter the market and the problem for us patients is that medics are NOT expert nutritionists.😰
As some of the interviewed scientists have said “we are what we eat” and it’s a ticking time bomb particularly for those eating a crap diet, sold a harmful diet or as children having to endure one due to having ignorant parents?
Take the word, “poison” in relation to some additives and sweeteners: weak, mild or potent and over time?
That Italian research institute on aspartame was alarming ( at least to me) ! The more aspartame mice were given the more and different tumours developed!
Regards
Xx
Ah, Angel Delight! And that chocolate stuff we squirted on ice cream that solidified. Not to mention that stardust powder we tipped into our mouths that fizzed and sort of popped. And let's not forget boil in the bag fish in parsley and synthetic something sauce....
When I left home at 18 I firmly and joyfully turned my back on these culinary marvels. Just thinking about Angel Delight now makes me shudder!
Whether the heady heavily processed food of my youth contributed to my health issues, who knows. Not on its own, I imagine. Just about everyone I knew ate this stuff and still being in touch with some of them I know that they are in good health. I guess genetics plays a large part and then various other factors can make certain outcomes more likely.
In any case, I too cannot tolerate much in the way of upfs, with my exceptionally irritable bowel. Rice milk, as I can't digest dairy, is about it.
Good wishes to you.
Oh Mrs Mouse, can you remember Ice magic chocolate, the runny sauce that cracked hard on contact with icecream. Oh how I loved popping Stardust. As a child, the vast majority of any pocket money and paper round money went on trying new sweets and treats. I was a sucker for a shiny wrapper and a glossy advertisement! If only I could turn back time and had a healthier passion!
So much UP food is targeted at children. It's not just fuel, it entertainment, a way of life for them, they never scream the house down for broccoli.
Decades ago the kids I use to teach would all be on sugar rushes after breaktime from the tuck shop, but they could still function and get their work done. Now so many children just have a can of pringles and a can of Redbull to last the school day. Their characters complete change on these, even more processed junk, it makes them less interested and more aggressive.
I don't fully believe that just eating junk will give everyone a disease, but boy those diabetes numbers are rising fast! It's got to be a combination of stress, food, sleep, lack of movement, the environment etc. Life is so different now.
There are a couple of my sch year friends that ate the most awful diets growing up. No joke, daily McDonald's! They never put any weight on and are still silm today, however, decades late they both have severe depression, so sad. I'm not sure a veg based diet would have delivered the same outcome 🤔.
Thank you, best wishes to you also.
Sarah x
Ice Magic! I couldn't recall its name when I wrote. And was it Stardust or Spacedust? Either way it exploded well and truly in the mouth 💥🤯, in a thrilling and also alarming manner...
A friend who teaches primary aged children tells me much the same about the 'food' some of her pupils consume and their behaviour. She teaches in a deprived area and for many children upfs are pretty much all they know, outwith of school. Or there isn't enough to eat at all at home...
Personally I am appalled by the health crisis we find ourselves in in the UK (and of course many other countries) and I can only agree with you re the link between diet and many of the health problems we as societies are now contending with.
I am in the fortunate financial position of being able to consume a diet that isn't upf based. And it is only really recently, due to so much media coverage of the issue, that I have reflected upon how privileged I am in this.
Try not to have Angel Delight based nightmares! Sarah x
😆 Thankfully no Angel Delight nightmares! Imagine drowning that the stuff! It's awful in some schools. They try their best, but the budget is so poor for food. Then some parents get VERY upset if a school trys to clean up the food. The school where I last worked has a breakfast club for students with free sch meal, which is fantastic. However it loads the students up on white bread and margarine. They soon sugar crash, but it's better than them not eating at all. The sch meals can be lovely and healthy (but not every day), however they sell too many snack alternatives at the same time. So most students have pizza, chips, pastries and flavoured milk instead of veg curry. If we can't get it right in our schools,,,,
We definitely have health crisis and a huge portion of it is fuel by the convenience food that is available, I fully understand why any body turns it to. It's ready to go with out too much hassle. Not many people have to time to to cook from scratch, and convenience foods are the only choice. If only there were more cleaner options that were available at a fair price. The government shouldn't allow these foods to be full of chemicals instead of real ingredients, but its all about the £££
I feel privileged also, as I now have the time to cook meals and learn more about nutrition.
I also drink non dairy milk. On the odd occasion, I make it from scratch (I have a Almond Cow collecting dust!), but I am more likely just to pick it from the supermarket. So even though I try to limit UPFs, they are still a small part of my diet. It is hard to cut them out 100%, but I am getting there.
Have you done the ZOE experiment?
Sarah x
I haven't but have just quickly googled it. I'll look in detail later.
Needing to follow a low to moderate fodmaps diet but also wanting to get sufficient calcium is what made me opt for the rice milk. I use an unsweetened variety. Tried making some myself but I just couldn't master it, plus there was still the need for calcium.
I never had a high upfs diet but now - with all manner of chronic illness going on- I am trying even harder to keep them to a minimum. I am also partial to lindt 85pc chocolate and the odd bag of kettle chips. I seem to be okay eating these occasionally but without a doubt I have found a predominantly fresh food diet really helps control brain fog, headaches, joint pains, and a variety of other symptoms.
Still, I don't know why I am beating myself up here about a few upfs. When I consider my husband's diet, I am a positive paragon of virtue! He has to be 'firmly encouraged' to eat fruit and veg, often has a different meal to mine, and thinks his oven chips and baked beans are vegetables! He has been known to argue that his daily fruit quota is met by consuming a tube of fruit pastilles! 😂
Oh, just seen ZOE have recently done some podcasts on ibs on YouTube, I haven't watched them yet, but will check them out.
The Fodmap really helped me, and I still check out the app ever so often. My IBS style symptoms are triggered by excess onion and garlic powder. Strangely I am OK with fresh garlic, unless it is cooked in certain oils. These symptoms started the same time as my SLE, would love to know what's going on in there! Has following Fodmap helped you?
I can't recommend enough.
luisasveganchocolates.co.uk...
She makes the most delicious range of chocolates. Dark to white, using cashew, rice or hazelnut milks, if you are ever missing milk chocolate.
How do some men get away with it!? My husband is also in the, chips are 1 of the 5 a day camp. I am sure he would support your husbands fruit pastilles argument as well🙄 😆
X
Hi there,
Thanks to all for your responses.
Thoughtful and highly perceptive.
I watched that BBC programme several times now and there are some very concerning issues about food safety, the toxicity of common artificial sweeteners, the dubious vested interest research findings from food producers and suspect practices from the Food Regulatory Authorities and the common use of toxic BIS plastic in food packaging.
Some important, summarised “takeaways” (pun intended) from Dr Mandrioli, Professor Millstone and Professor Tim Spector:
* Dr Mandrioli, working from Italy conducted the world’s largest study on ASPARTAME (Canderel) on mice and rats deemed to be safe in humans? Not so according to this research team! Aspartame intake is strongly linked to cancer (all types), heart disease and diabetes. Some will of course argue that you cannot extrapolate from animal studies?!
*Professor Millstone in the UK conducted a massive analysis of research papers on the safety of ASPARTAME! He concludes disturbingly, “ 90+% of all studies saying that aspartame is safe have been funded by food manufacturers and big corporations. Independent, unfunded research on this sweetener say it’s unsafe and is of concern…” Are we being duped?
*Professor Tim Spector (of ZOE ‘fame’) reported on a pair of identical teenage girls: One was given wholesome, fresh food and the other opted for ultra-processed food containing a huge range of chemical additives, preservatives, sweeteners, thickeners, gelling agents etc. They both took in the same calories and amounts of protein, carbs, fats etc for TWO WEEKS!
After two weeks the twin eating only processed food put on 1kg weight, reported having headaches and generally feeling unwell. Tim quipped, “ these differences in health states are showing up in just two weeks, imagine this going on for twenty years…”😭
Sadly in the U.K. the figures for child obesity and diabetes are pretty appalling!😰😱Mostly related to poor diets!
Have a watch on BBCi player.
This is a different perspective on the programme, I am not trying to have a go at people, I just want people to know that there are different ways of viewing the programme.
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0...
Hi Jennifer,
I thought your post above about “meanings” for the term UPF, ultra processed foods was spot on.👍👏✅
This newspaper journalist (presumably not a practising scientist views are provocative? He’s debunked the BBC program. One wonders why?
What nutritional science or scientist is he actually questioning? Christopher Snowdon? Who’s he?
Many journalists and media people can be bought and paid?😜
And so can scientists!🥹
Me? I look at all food labels very closely and am cutting back on aspartame.👆
Hi Betty
Christopher Snowdon is quite well known for questioning public health scares and journalism. He works for the Institute of Economic Affairs. He is good at looking at data and asking questions. I put a link to his piece in the Telegraph because he writes much better than me. He isn't qualified in science. He writes about things like minimum pricing for alcohol where economics and health overlap.
The BBC's science coverage has gone significantly downhill over the last couple of decades I've noticed, I certainly don't bother accepting anything they tell me as fact anymore. I noticed during covid that the chief medical reporter had a degree in English, which I don't think is good enough given how much money they get from us via the licence fee. They seem to delight in presenting everything in science and health as a disaster, even though we are all living longer than ever.
Yes, we should always question what's in our food and ask who's giving money to who in government, aspartame's a good example where I am happy to agree that I am not sure it's that great for us. This programme is however completely over the top and scare mongering.
I am concerned about the level of fear used by journalists to get clicks and views. I am concerned about the growth in orthorexia, where people have a disproportionate fear about what they are eating, I don't like to see or hear such terror from people, it's verging on a form of anorexia in my opinion. We do have quite strict rules in this country about what is allowed in food. I keep seeing people freaking out about different foods, e.g. seed oils or salt and when I look into these foods, they turn out to be fine and the claims made either exaggerated or simply false.
I hope this post doesn't upset anyone, because it's truly well meant.
Best Wishes
Jennifer
”The BBC's science coverage has gone significantly downhill over the last couple of decades I've noticed, …”
======
Not in my opinion.
This Panorama programme had an interrogating style and actually interviewed lead researchers face to face! I don’t think any of those qualified scientists interviewed were bent on scaremongering?
It was in no way a YouTube style marketing promotion of any one type of diet.
It wasn’t “orthorexic” unless one was already predisposed to such a nervous disorder IMO.
BTW did you actually watch the programme yourself?
No way is the science coverage with regard to natural history, weather watching, meteorology, climate change etc poor. Surveys have shown them to be well respected and unbiased. Narrators like David Attenborough are well respected and loved worldwide and so are their cameramen.
Well, we will have to disagree on standards at the BBC.
When I hear people on the train screeching at each other that salt is so baaad in a terrified tone of voice, that is what I am referring to with the fear over food consumption.
Are you blaming the BBC for scaremongering on salt?🤣🧏♀️🥹
Strange response to Betty’s post?
That was referring to her point about orthorexia, it was just a random example of what I meant about fear being created unnecessarily.
I read all the posts and I agree with Betty that I do not feel that the BBC Panorama was in anyway scaremongering as you say.
Many of these additives, enhancers and chemicals in food products can be harmful and toxic to us over time. The programme was alerting viewers to these substances rather than “scaremongering “!
I enjoyed it and the twin study results made an important point. I watched it twice without conscious prejudice.
One wonders what sort of diets the people on the train you travel with actually follow? Hopefully they’re not all orthorexics (suffering obsessive anxiety about certain food types)?
I think it might be partly where I work, it's a university town with a large IT and science sector with a high number of autistic/asperger types. They tend to be less able to appreciate context and hate breaking perceived 'rules'. The women seem much more affected by worries about food than the men.
I found the programme rather doom laden in presentation myself. I guess we all perceive things differently.
Hi Jennifer. I am a journalist and I can tell you the Telegraph isn't journalism as we know it. They are a client publication really, and endlessly engaged in culture wars. A really good source for this discussion is the Zoe nutrition podcast.
I cut out UPF five years ago, and also gluten. It means I age better, keep my weight down and keep my lupus under control (because I've noticed a link between foods and flares).
Of course, no-one is making you eat healthily. It is your choice. But try not to discourage people who are exploring how to get better? Thank you.
Beautifully said
I am not trying to discourage people from eating healthily, merely I don't want people terrified about what they are eating.I agree the Telegraph has gone a long way downhill, I have seen the complaints from exjournalists who worked there, sadly so have all our national newspapers. the local ones and our national television broadcasters too.
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
Holiday and happy times !
BBC interview on lupus and care tonight at 630 on BBC look East (West). 
Easing restrictions puts vulnerable at risk - BBC news 
LUPUS UK, BBC Breakfast & the Virtual London Marathon
