دسته: بازیابی عضلانی

I just read the book Ultra-processed People, by Chris van Tulleken, about the large amount of highly processed food in our modern diets, which I recommend. I’d always known about obvious kinds of processing like turning wheat into white flour by removing the germ and bran and then grinding up the rest. But the author is further emphasizing things in our food that sound more like they came out of a test tube than a garden, like xanthan gum or monoglycerides. Highly processed food has three main effects, the first is the removal of nutritious components like wheat germ, the second is “predigestion”, for example grinding up fruit in a smoothie which breaks down the cell walls. The third is the additives. I’ve always thought the first two were the more important, which is why brown rice is preferred over white or an apple over apple juice. But the author gives convincing evidence that the additives are not good for us either. He also traces the history of how large food companies like Nestle fairly recently opened up a new market for their products in Brazil, and how this led to a significant increase in obesity in the population.

It is difficult to rid your diet completely of Ultra-processed food unless you are a good cook and can prepare most of your meals from scratch. But it is definitely possible to cut back. A large contributor of overly processed food in my diet is “treats” like cookies or candy, and it I can definitely try to be more disciplined about eating those less often. Also, there are “boutique” brands of commercial foods like soups and chili that have higher quality ingredients and fewer additives. These can be eaten directly or used as the start of stews or casseroles. Boutique brands are more expensive but the money I save on eating fewer treats can make up the difference. Reading this book has motivated me to try harder on measures like these.