It sounds, initially, like a contradiction in terms. But on closer inspection, it emerges as a real pos-sibility, and a danger for folks who are unclear on the concepts. Even plant-based foods can be ruined by ultraprocessing…
Late last year, French researchers published some surprising findings comparing the health impacts of diets rich in minimally processed plant-based foods and those that rely heavily on ultraprocessed plant-based items…
What they did…
“To determine how ultra-processed plant-based foods might affect someone’s health, the team used data collected from 63,835 adults who were enrolled in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort,” Stacey Leasca writes, in Food & Wine. ”
This large-scale project followed participants for an average of 9.1 years, with the volunteers regularly documenting what they ate and drank through questionnaires.
Not hidden, but not clear, either…
The study, in the medical journal The Lancet Regional Health proved a point that folks who advocate against processed foods have been trying to get across for some time, now.
The problem seems to stem from inadequate understanding, among legions of average folks, about what ‘plant-based’ and ‘ultra-processed’ actually mean.
Most of us know the basics: junk food, packaged prepared foods of all kinds, and even seemingly innocuous products such as supermarket white bread, fall into the ‘processed’ and even ‘ultrapro-cessed’ categories. As such, nutrition and health authorities caution against us including too many such choices in our daily diets.
Prime examples…
Nutritionists, doctors and healthy living voices from all over the map have been extolling the advant-ages of a plant-based diet. The evidence is clear and incontrovertible. But they’re talking about plant foods in, or close to their original state. Trouble is, any plant-based food can be processed or ultra-processed, making it just as bad for us as… Potato Chips?
That’s a prime example, if ever I saw one!
How do you know what’s what?
The researchers found that: “People who ate larger amounts of plant-based foods that were nutri-tionally higher quality but ultra-processed, including items such as industrial wholemeal breads, store-bought soups, ready-made pasta dishes, or commercially prepared salads with dressing, did NOT experience a reduced cardiovascular risk relative to individuals who consumed fewer of these products and more animal-based foods.”
Vegan Food and Living provides a comprehensive look at certified-vegan, yet heavily processed foods. It’s en eye-opener!
What about plant-based meats?
They’re classed, according to the standard factors, as ultraprocessed foods. A clear case of plant-based foods being rendered fundamentally unhealthy by processing.
My take
As I hope I’ve demonstrated, it’s crucial for consumers to know which plant-based foods are wholesome and beneficial, and which are dangerous as a result of processing.
I hope we’ve shone a bright-enough light on the issue today, in this space…
~ Maggie J.