How harmful can ultra-processed foods be for us? - BBC News

This should be required viewing for everyone, The food industry needs to be put in the spotlight like tobacco was.

All the time saved by eating "fast food", turns out to be lost by a shortened lifespan.

It is a total tragedy, that cooking has been taken off the school curriculum in many countries. When I was in 5th grade, many years ago, the boys in my class were among the first to choose between cooking and (the traditional) woodwork. We all chose cooking - and I became quite good at it. Today, I NEVER buy processed foods - I cook from the bottom up. And - if you know, what you are doing, you can make a great, and cheap, dinner in 12 minutes. Oh - and tell your sons, that being a good cook is one of the best pickup moves around.

It shouldn't be controversial to want healthy, natural food. We should cater to our health and lives above all else.

I am an American that completely cut Processed foods from my diet over 2 years now. I have been able to lose over 135lbs - 9.64 stone in 27 months. I went from 314lbs - 22.42 stone to 174lbs 12.42 stone. 80% to 90% of the food I now purchase is from the fresh produce department. I also walk at least 2 hours every day. My Doctor informed me I have done what only 1% of the American population can do. I call it box food. Stop eating box food.

Ive worked in the NHS for about a decade and the healthcare system is focused in curing diseases and not prevention and health promotion. The food industry is also to blame in supermarkets like ASDA, TESCO, Sainsburys have a lot of cheap ultraprocessed food. In a cost of living crisis, the common man will go for the cheap unhealthy options. The poorer your family is the higher likelihood of obesity and chronic medical conditions.

A healthy tip I'd share is to learn how to make some of the foods you might regularly like to eat, such as bread, almond/nut milk, or even peanut butter, yourself. It's actually not that hard to make many foods from scratch, and by using raw ingredients (preferably organic) you can skip all the additives and junk you normally get when buying pre-made items off the shelf and potentially save a decent amount of cash too.

4:49 Food manufacturers don't care about people's health. It's all about making as much profit as possible. The longer a product can stay on the shelf, with the use of additives and preservatives etc, the more money they can make. Just because something passes current regulations it doesn't mean it's healthy. Also in the West many people have lost the ability to cook at home from scratch. Parents and schools no longer pass on the necessary skills to children. Whereas in many Asian countries cooking at home from scratch is still a thing and people there are much healthier for it.

My Celiac and diabetes forced me to give up all processed foods. Although whole foods are more expensive, I’ve lost weight, no alcohol, and my blood sugar stays around 120-130 now.

My parents were from the Depression-era generation. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, we grew all our own organic fruits and vegetables, canned everything for winter, made everything from scratch, bought all our milk, sausage, cheese and eggs from local farmers. Now, people can't even make a pie crust or put flour, baking soda and salt together for cakes or pancakes without using some kind of pre-mixed crap with additives. Cooking and canning has become a lost art.

The argument about whole foods being more expensive than ultra processed foods is broadly correct. However, it doesn't negate any positive changes you can make, even small. Anything in the right direction is an improvement. An apple is cheaper than a kit kat.

I read science research paper on this a year or two ago and it was interesting. Fascinating to see it in video form as well, especially in a non-US context because their "ultra processed food" is nothing compared to the level of processing we have here

Issue isn't always the knowledge something isnt the best for you. They need to also benchmark costs for healthy vs. Unhealthy, very sure it's cost of living pushing even more people towards ultra processed as these are the foods most affordable and with the best deals (offers always at the front of the shops on display). These are the things govt needs to clmap down on and incentivise more lower income households to purchase healthier. Videos like this don't always help as just makes the poor poorer

Jamie Oliver tried to get school dinners nutritious (like we used to have) but the school children were already addicted to UPF!

We need to take down these horrible practices that food industries use! Healthy food should be a right not a luxury.

Is there an actual full version of this BBC episode?

I cook the meals my family eats because I grew up eating cooked meals, although what I make is a bit more nutritious. We eat out only a few times a year and I limit the amount of junk my kids eat at home. The results speak for themselves: this past week ALL the children that live in our apartment complex was sick. All except my daughters. My best friend who lives across the street from me, her 11 year old daughter is way above her weight class, and she might now have diabetes. I have tried for 12 years to convince my friend to change the way she and her kids eat, but she is convinced that her children won't eat healthy. Here in America, so many people have it in there heads that healthier foods are expensive, yet, the prices of fast food have drastically increased. And I always see long lines at the local McDonald's in my town but the fresh produce aisle are always well stocked. Ridiculous.

Terrific and very informative video. In Australia we have the same issue with junk/crap food. I trying to cut processed food out of the diet but it is not always easy. Label reading takes time and some knowledge. Keep up the work.

The only problem I have with this is equating not knowing what a long word in an ingredients list means with that ingredient being unhealthy. “Sodium bicarbonate” is a long couple of words for an ingredient name, so it must be bad right? Nope, it’s just baking soda. Read the ingredients, absolutely, but just because you don’t recognize something doesn’t automatically make it unnatural and bad.

They should have shown the actual before and after test results for the lipids, sugar etc. This would have given the study more weight. Since, just saying all those things increased usually makes people seriously sceptical due to the vagueness of it. Scientific studies and results should be very accurate.