Questão 13 - IDOMED Unificado Medicina - Presencial 2025/1

WHY ULTRA-PROCESSED FOODS ARE SO BAD FOR YOU

BY TARA LAW
JANUARY 9, 2023 12:06 PM EST

 

    A growing number of recent studies have raised health concerns about a certain type of food that most Americans eat: ultra-processed food. Unlike minimally processed food or unprocessed foods – like eggs, for example, which travel from the farm to your kitchen looking pretty much the same – ultra-processed foods have been radically changed by manufacturers. By the time they hit your grocery shelf, they’ve likely been heated, pressed, and enhanced by additives designed to make them last longer, taste better, and appear more attractive, often to the detriment of your health.

    Ultra-processed foods tend to be junk food: low in fiber and high in sugar and calories. But because ultra-processed foods are defined by the types of ingredients they contain, not by their nutrition content, this category can also include foods with beneficial nutrients, like breads high in fiber. Anyway, longitudinal studies in the Americas and Europe have linked eating more ultra-processed food to a number of health risks, including increases in obesity, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and even dementia. Other research has linked consuming ultra-processed foods to an increased risk of early death.

    Experts agree that reducing consumption of ultra-processed foods shouldn’t be the public’s responsibility alone. Many people don’t live in communities with access to healthy, minimally processed food, which tends to be more expensive than ultra-processed food. To reduce ultra-processed food, governments will need to implement policies to expand access to healthy food, such as by limiting the availability of ultra-processed food in schools. Another important policy is for governments to warn the public about the dangers of ultra-processed food and to implement clear labelling. Some countries have already started to warn the public about ultra-processed foods.

    If people want to make their own diet healthier, a mindset change is key. First it’s important to think about food not in a calorie way, but in a “quality way”. If people want to reduce the number of ultra-processed foods they eat, they should opt for other foods that are cheap and don’t take much preparation, like beans, lentils, and eggs, or even healthy snacks, such as nuts, seeds, and whole fruit.

Available at: https://time.com/6245237/ultra-processed-foods-diet-bad/. Accessed: 22 August 2024. (Adapted)

Observe these questions:

 

“Why are ultra-processed foods so harmful?”
“How do I cut back on ultra-processed foods?”

 

Their answers are present, respectively, in the following paragraphs: