Showing posts with label ultra-processed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ultra-processed. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Headlines about ultra-processed food abound. I don’t know what the difference is between processed and ultra-processed. AI Overview tells me there are 4 categories:
Unprocessed or minimally processed - e.g. washed, frozen or packaged are minimal
Processed ingredients - vegetable oils, butter, sugar, salt
So are we ok with 1 to 3 and just not 4? It makes me think that there is very little that is unprocessed. The supermarket has many variations of washing, coating with waxes, and putting things like vegetables in packages that add nitrogen.
Nitrogen is the way we keep apples and pears in such perfect condition. “sleep” storage is what it seems to be called - makes me think of Sleeping Beauty. These are considered good and ok.
Compare that to sweet potatoes - they are cured and not stored in nitrogen. Sweetness is the factor involved - they are processed in controlled, warm, humid environments for 4-10 days converting starches to sugars and healing skin wounds. Then they are moved to cooler storage. This is considered good.
Our modern concern is about ultra-processing - between 70 - 73% of the total U.S. food supply available in stores is ultra-processed. The numbers would be the same in other countries - UK and Canada for sure.
What was the percent in 1950? Less than 5%. No wonder this is a big headline news item.
Somewhere in the dark corners of my iMac operating system is AI “intelligence” with the proof being this image. I don’t think I’ve ever tagged an image with the keyword “food” - lots came up today - all the Marvelling the Mushroom series, and others not related to food (which makes me quite sure it is AI at work.)
This pair of decorative strawberries were a display item at the Hildreth Farm Stand where I buy fruits and vegetables.
