Good news for patients, bad news for Big Food and Big Pharma

[SotI]

I would prefer if they stopped with these epidemiology studies that are notoriously over-stated, and would put some effort and money into RCTs with proper variable controls.

Still, as long as dietary guidelines are strongly influenced by Big Food, and Big Pharma is happy to collaborate, don't count on improving public health and putting a lid on rising medical cost.
Just saying ...

[PeteD01]

That's not feasible - there is no way to execute a RCT on a sufficiently large scale considering that the hard outcomes, such as death or cardiovascular events, take many years or even decades to manifest.

Cohort studies just like the one we are discussing is the most one can expect in this field.
Fundamentally, this is a public health issue and epidemiology tools are appropriate for the field, notwithstanding that the industry has been attempting to frame the issue as one of personal responsibility (they did the same with smoking).

There is also a subtext to the study:
Although the six foods (fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes, fish, and whole-fat dairy) that contribute to the PURE score are identified as foods having positive effects on health, this is not the whole story.

The findings can be interpreted without resorting to some, not very well characterized, medicinal properties of certain foods.
The effect could also be explained by the displacement of ultra high processed food and starches, as one can reasonably assume that the six foods are not consumed in addition to an unchanged base consumption of harmful stuff.

This perspective subtly changes the story from one that blames the outcomes on insufficient intake of the good stuff to one of exposure to toxic stuff.
The PURE score approach thus can be looked at as one that diminishes toxicity by reducing exposure to toxic products.

The food industry hates this perspective, as they would much prefer to have the issue framed as an interminable series of poor decisions made by individuals; and they are actively working at keeping the discussion framed as such.
Just look at the firehose of junk nutritional research that is published (often sponsored by the food industry in one way or another): an endless series of spurious correlations and conjectures that always come with the disclaimer that correlation is not causation.

This avalanche of propaganda makes the issue appear incredibly complex, and leaves the average person confused and believing that we are dealing with an intractably difficult problem.
There's nothing further from the truth: don´t eat ultra high processed food and concentrated starches and sugar.
 

[Gronnie]

I for one think we should continue to take all our nutrition advice from 7th Day Adventists that just don't want us to mastrubate.

[PeteD01]

I for one thing we should continue to take all our nutrition advice from 7th Day Adventists that just don't want us to mastrubate.

Not a bad way to eat but they seem to emphasize low fat dairy if any.
Reduced fat dairy has a higher glycemic index than full fat dairy and is associated with less protective effect in regards to diabetes type 2.
The difference appears to originate from the additional processing step involved that breaks up the fat/protein globules present in full fat products, thus speeding up absorption of sugars and protein with resulting augmented insulin response (not desirable).

[GuitarStv]

I for one thing we should continue to take all our nutrition advice from 7th Day Adventists that just don't want us to mastrubate.

Without masturbation what are you going to do with all that extra time living though?

[PeteD01]

Bon appétit!

How ultra-processed food has changed our minds, bodies, and culture

JUN 27, 10:00 AM

And, to me, it's felt like this was one of the most paradigm-shifting parts of the text in that it seems like the, the way that most of us have been taught to evaluate the health potential, the health benefits of the food that we might purchase or eat has to do with the calorie count, the grams of fat, the sodium. We're looking for these kind of line items. We have this way of essentially, in our brains, and our labels, like, we're reducing and deconstructing the food into a pile of ingredients and then imagining it reconstructed and evaluated. Like, but that's not how a sandwich is eaten. It's not like, two pieces of bread and then a wedge of cheese and a fourth of a tomato. You bite through the whole thing. There's a gestalt aspect to food. It seems like that’s a big part of your argument. It's not just the little tiny pieces that are in it that are in the back of the nutrition label. Is that correct, do you think?
...
I would say if you are individually addicted to ultra-processed food and you have the time and money to quit, then read my book. The idea is by the end of the book, you will not be able to eat the food. It is meant to disgust you and I think a lot of people do experience this. I'm not selling some diet or cure. I can't promise this will happen. But you may find you can no longer eat it. It's like that book where you smoke while you, while you read it and you stop being able to smoke. Um, but, if you're not addicted, but you're worried about your kids' health, or your health, then lots of people may just find it healthy to cut down.


https://the1a.org/segments/how-ultra-processed-food-has-integrated-into-our-minds-bodies-and-culture/

[PeteD01]

More on ultra-processed food - fresh from the British Medical Journal:


Food for Thought 2023
(newly published collection of articles)

https://www.bmj.com/food4thought23

Social, clinical, and policy implications of ultra-processed food addiction
BMJ 2023;383:e075354: (Published 09 October 2023)

Policy implications of UPF addiction
The misclassification of addictive substances as non-addictive can delay necessary policy action. Tobacco companies minimised the addictive nature of their products by focusing on users’ personal responsibility.50 However, people find it challenging to reduce intake of addictive substances even when highly motivated, which challenges the personal responsibility narrative used by industry.7879 Appropriately classifying cigarettes as addictive increased the focus on industry culpability7880 and supported litigation, regulatory, and policy efforts that have been effective in reducing tobacco use globally.8182

If the science supports reclassifying UPFs as addictive substances, it may support the use of similar approaches to address UPF addiction (box 3). This would particularly highlight the need for regulatory safeguards to curtail industry practices such as the creation of UPFs that maximise “craveability” by hitting consumers’ “bliss point,” and the aggressive marketing of such products to children.9798 As past addiction epidemics have shown, multipronged action will be needed to address the factors that allow the spread of potentially addictive UPFs to occur unchecked.

https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj-2023-075354

Ultra-processed foods and cardiometabolic health: public health policies to reduce consumption cannot wait
BMJ 2023;383:e075294 (Published 09 October 2023)

Are minimally processed diets achievable and affordable?
Cost per calorie of ultra-processed food products is often low, and consumption of some ultra-processed foods such as sugary drinks are consistently higher in disadvantaged socioeconomic classes in many countries.70 However, the socioeconomic profiles of consumers of ultra-processed food differ across countries, and ultra-processed diets are not necessarily cheaper than minimally processed ones. A study based on the data of the Brazilian Household Budget Survey from around 56 000 households found that, regardless of income, diet cost decreased when households better followed national dietary guidance, which included advice on limiting ultra-processed foods.71
Achieving healthy and sustainable diets with minimal amounts of ultra-processed foods at reasonable costs can be difficult currently in some countries where they are ubiquitous. Some countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, France, Belgium, Cataluña, Israel, Malaysia, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Canada) have officially started to promote healthy and affordable non-ultra-processed diets in their official food policies, and provide concrete tools and examples to help citizens in their daily life. For example, the French MangerBouger website proposes weekly ideas of recipes to foster the preparation and consumption of non-to-minimally processed seasonal healthy foods adapted to all budgets and time constraints
The success of other public health measures such as the sugary drink tax in Mexico72 and front-of- package labelling in France shifting consumption from unhealthy to healthy foods,73 suggest similar levers could be used to reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods.

https://www.bmj.com/content/383/BMJ-2023-075294

[Just Joe]

So how does someone go about quitting a processed food addiction? Many vices are "optional" whereas eating is very necessary. Is simple food substitution enough?

[beekayworld]

What helped me was:
1) Waiting to eat as long as possible in the morning.  I only have black coffee.

2) Breaking the fast with 7-10 cups of salad greens (with lemon juice, olive oil, and various add-ins like tomatoes, walnuts, avocado.

These ideas came from watching Dr. Eric Berg's videos. He points out that if you eat something else first, you won't feel like having a big salad.  I find that absolutely true.

[Just Joe]

Thank you....