Should You Hang Turnips Over Your Front Door?

This is the last article in a series devoted to ultra-processed foods or UPFs. I’ve written about them for a while because I feel so strongly that they are the root cause of our healthy eating deficiencies. Hopefully, you can see their dangers and feel motivated to start transitioning away from them, step by small step.

Remember you are hardly alone. Our entire food culture is spending billions convincing us to eat processed foods with no worry for tomorrow. Let’s stick together to create a New Eating Culture where UPFs are no longer even a part of the food landscape, luring us to sacrifice our health for a momentary pleasure hit.

So . . . what about those turnips?

I once read a book about one of the plagues that ravaged England centuries ago. It described many superstitious remedies that were advanced to ward off the plague–things like hanging a bag of turnips over the front door during full moons.

“Whew!” I said after finishing the book. Good thing modern science came along to dispel some of the superstitions that often governed daily life in previous centuries.

Science has indeed been a blessing over the last couple hundred years. But have we become too dependent on it when deciding what to eat?

The Science and UPFs  This thought came to me while researching the science around eating processed foods for my webinar, “Breaking Free of the Processed Food Force Field.” Among the findings:

• First, observational studies have linked ultra-processed food consumption to no less than 32 different diseases and conditions.
• Meanwhile, a ground-breaking controlled study pretty definitively demonstrated that UPF consumption led to over-eating and weight gain. (Find out more at min 11:01 in the webinar and in the handouts.)

Now, scientists are trying to figure out exactly why UPFs are so damaging to the body. While undoubtedly an interesting area for further research, I’m concerned that we won’t be given definitive advice to eliminate UPFs until a definitive answer is determined.

Is Definitive Proof Really Required?  However, do we ordinary food consumers really need 100% guaranteed proof before ditching processed foods? UPFs have several serious disadvantages that don’t require definitive scientific proof so why should we continue eating them?

Chief among these disadvantages is the fact that ultra-processed “foods” aren’t really foods at all! They are what experts call “industrial formulations.”

“Seeing” with New Eyes  Imagine eating industrial formulations like Play-Doh or Elmer’s glue. Sure UPFs are food-grade, colored, flavored and manufactured to look like food, but step one in transitioning away from them is this:

Seeing them for what they actually are.

Anymore, when I see a bottle of fluorescent-colored Asian sauce or fluffy white dinner rolls or fried snack foods, I no longer see a “food.” Over the years, my eyesight has gradually adjusted so I see these items as merely combinations of ingredients that are only masquerading as food. They are not the real thing at all.

5 More Reasons  Nutrition Consultant Julie Thenell catalogued several other disadvantages of UPFs which offer powerfully sensible reasons to start gravitating away from processed foods. As she explains in a recent blog post, UPFs:

1. Are high in unhealthy ingredients,
2. Are calorie dense in an unhealthy way,
3. Are meanwhile low in nutrients,
4. Displace healthy foods that provide critical nutrients, and
5. Encourage addictive eating behavior

Do you need anything more to ditch UPFs?